Haunted By Nightmares
by Steph's
Summary: FMA and The X Files crossover. 8 soldiers were killed in their homes under mysterious circumstances and Col. Mustang is stuck with this weird murder case. Will Mulder and Scully be able to help in the investigation? Royai. Better summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist or The X-Files. I do own the characters I myself created for this story, not that they're good for anything ¬¬'…

Summary: Due to some unexplained phenomena, Mulder and Scully, two FBI agents with an interesting reputation for working in the X Files, travel through time and end up in Amestris. The X Files is a special FBI division that deals with cases that are considered unsolvable or are related to the supernatural. Col. Mustang is in charge of a murder investigation that is unusual, to say the least. Would Mulder and Scully, having so much experience in dealing with paranormal phenomena, be able to help him in this investigation?

Notes:

1st: Before you start reading this, let me just say that I WILL finish posting the fanfic. It's already complete and as my computer sucks I even have a backup copy. You don't have to worry about me giving up on it or my computer dying.

2nd: This is a FMA TXF crossover. If you know FMA and aren't familiar with The X Files, it's all right. You may not understand some of the jokes, but you'll be able to understand and enjoy the story. If by any chance you know The X Files but don't know FMA, I'd recommend that you look for other TXF fanfics, 'cause you'd be a little lost here.

3rd: English isn't my first language. I actually live in Brazil. If you spot any mistakes or simply a bad choice of words somewhere, please let me know. I won't replace the whole chapter (unless it's something terrible), but I won't make the same mistake again (at least let's hope so…).

* * *

**Haunted By Nightmares**

**Chapter 1**

It was a cold and rainy night in the end of October. The temperature outside the airplane was cold enough to kill a person, but the passengers aboard the American Airs commercial flight to Atlanta were all well protected from the bad weather conditions. Most of them had already turned off the lights above their heads and were trying to sleep. Dana Scully would try to get some sleep too, if the man by her side would turn his reading light off. She pulled her red hair behind her ear and sighed. Traveling was something common in her life and she had to admit she had already spent too many hours of her life on board of an airplane. Fox Mulder, her partner, was sitting by her side, still reading the reports from the case they were supposed to investigate. The interested look on his face showed that there was something very strange in this case. The FBI had been called to help in a murder investigation and agents Mulder and Scully had been assigned the case.

"Mulder, I thought you had read the reports already." Scully said, suppressing a yawn.

"I did. There are just some oddities in this case." The man replied, taking off his reading glasses and straightening his dark brown hair.

"That's why we were called…" Scully said, looking in his hazel eyes, a little annoyed.

"If you want me to turn off the light so you can sleep, just tell me."

"No, it's okay."

Scully was about to ask Mulder's opinion on some detail of the case when the airplane started shaking. The fasten-your-seatbelts-lights were turned on and a flight attendant's voice came through the speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have you attention please? We're currently experiencing some turbulence, so for your safety we ask you to remain seated, with your seatbelts fastened, until we have better flying conditions. If you have any questions, please…"

Mulder closed the file he was reading and calmly fastened his seatbelt. Scully was now looking through the window at the endless darkness outside. Both of them were already used to flying and didn't mind the occasional turbulences. Mulder finally put the files back in his suitcase and was about to turn off his reading light when all the lights in the airplane were suddenly turned off at the same time.

***********

It was early in the morning and the birds were singing hysterically. The sun was shining and it looked like it was going to be a hot day. A mailman was sorting letters in the mailboxes at the ground floor of a small apartment building when a blonde tall man in a military blue uniform rushed in and almost bumped into him.

"Excuse me." The soldier said quickly, before heading to the stairs.

"No problem, sir." he said.

That soldier reeked of cigarette smoke, the mailman thought, as he waved his hand on the air, trying to make the bad smell go away.

The blonde soldier climbed the stairs in a hurry, turned right in the hall of the 4th floor and knocked on the first door. He waited for about 15 seconds and knocked on the door again. After a few more seconds the door opened and a man wearing military pants and a white shirt showed up. He had short black straight hair and was slightly shorter than the man who had just arrived. He didn't have any shoes on and still looked sleepy. Anyone could tell that he was just getting ready for work, but wasn't too excited about it.

"What is it, Lt. Havoc?" The black-haired man asked.

"There's been another murder, Colonel."

Roy Mustang was still young and was already Colonel. That made many people at his work envious of him. He was aware of that, but it didn't bother him. He had subordinates he could trust with his life and who trusted him to look out for them as well.

"Another soldier?" Col. Mustang asked.

"Sergeant Tom Carter was found dead in his apartment near the headquarters." Havoc explained.

"Could anyone determine the cause of death?"

"The medical examiner was called. He must be heading to the scene as we speak, sir."

"Okay, I'll just get some shoes on."

The man went inside and came back a couple of minutes later, completely dressed and ready to go. They got in a car that Lt. Havoc had parked on the street and left for the crime scene.

************

Mulder was lying down on some hard and humid surface. It wasn't very comfortable there. He was thinking of how he had fallen from his bed, when he remembered he wasn't in his apartment. He was inside an airplane, flying to Atlanta.

"Mulder!" A familiar voice called.

"Scully?" He asked, opening his eyes, only to see his red-headed partner, standing up in what appeared to be the basement of an old house. "Where are we?"

"I have no idea." Scully said, still looking around.

"But we were just in the plane! You remember that, don't you? We were flying to Atl-"

"I remember, Mulder. We were flying to Atlanta."

"For some reason I don't think we're in Atlanta…" Mulder said, as he now took a look around.

They were in a dirty basement. There were wooden stairs in the corner of the room and they led to a closed door. The walls were originally white, but now had a yellowish color, as they hadn't been painted for a long time. The floor was made of cobblestones and there was no furniture and no windows. There were a few candles in candlesticks, illuminating the place with a faint light. Mulder then noticed the symbols. There were big circles with some weird writing inside and some drawings that resembled animals, drawn in a very rustic style. There was one of these symbols in each of the four walls of the room. He looked at up and down and found two more symbols, one on the floor and one on the ceiling.

"Scully, were these symbols painted with different colors?"

"Yes… Do you think the door is locked?"

"What colors are they?"

Scully didn't want to talk about the symbols now, but Mulder insisted. The man was red-green color blind, so he couldn't be sure about some of the symbols.

"The symbol on that wall is painted in green as the symbol on that wall across from it. The symbols on the floor and that one on the ceiling are red." Scully said patiently, as she could imagine how annoying it could be to be unable to tell the difference between two colors.

"Interesting…"

Mulder stared at the symbols, completely amazed by them, but Scully wasn't worried about that. She just climbed the stairs and tried the door. To her surprise, it wasn't locked.

"What do you see?"

"Looks like an abandoned house."

Scully instinctively tried to reach for her gun, but then realized she wasn't carrying one. Even an FBI agent wasn't allowed to carry a gun with them inside the airplane cabin. Mulder stepped ahead of her, thinking it would be his duty to protect agent Scully if they were attacked, shot, or anything. He was almost disappointed. There was just nothing. The house was empty. They got to what appeared to be a living room and there were windows and a door. The sun light illuminated the whole place, but even that didn't make it look nice. The walls were dirty, the floor was covered in dust and there was no furniture. The only thing they spotted, as soon as they got in the room, were footprints on the dust layer.

"Seems like someone was just here." Scully said, staring at the footprints, while trying to analyze the whole situation.

"Look at this Scully! Come here!" Mulder shouted loudly, like a kid who had just found their Christmas presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

"What is it? Where are we?" She asked, walking to the window, being careful not to step on the footprints.

She caught her breath for a second when she saw the street through the window. Old cars were going down the street as people walked by on the sidewalks, wearing clothes that were different from anything she had expected to see.

"We must be in some small town." Scully considered, already predicting that Mulder would have some very interesting and totally illogical theory about it.

"Look at that!" He shouted, pointing at one of the cars. "It's like we've travelled through time!"

"Time traveling was created by sci-fi movies."

"Then how did we end up here, Scully?"

"Someone must have drugged us. I wonder why."

"I could name a few people who would like to see us dead, but why bring us here?"

Mulder walked to the door, took a deep breath and pulled the doorknob. A gentle breeze entered the room as they walked out of the house, completely amazed by everything around them.

"If we didn't travel through time, then where the hell are we, Scully?"

* * *

**A/N: **This first chapter is mainly focused on Scully and Mulder, but I'll focus more on the FMA characters during most of the story. So, if you aren't particularly interested in TXF and want to see the FMA characters, come back for the next chapter. Oh, and please, leave a review. Makes me happy and less inclined to kill characters in the story… hahahaha!


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA or TXF… If I did, Mulder and Scully would have a REAL happy ending and Roy and Riza would be together. Well, the manga is not over yet, so let's hope Arakawa has a nice ending for them. Meanwhile, I'll keep the gun in my wardrobe... haha

Ssadropout: Yes, I always said that, too!! Hahaha! Thanks for your review!

RR Forever: Thanks for the review, I hope you'll like this chapter too!

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**Chapter 2**

Colonel Roy Mustang walked into the apartment of the victim, followed by Second Lieutenant Havoc. They heard voices coming from the bathroom and headed that way.

"Good morning, sir." Said the old man, looking at the Colonel for a second, and then turning his attention back to the corpse.

The medical examiner tried to close the eyelids of the dead man to make him look less spooked, but didn't really succeed. His frozen expression suggested he hadn't had an easy death. Sergeant Tom Carter's face and T-shirt were soaked. There was some water in the bathtub and a towel hanging on the bathroom door.

"How did he die?" Roy asked.

"I can't say for sure until the autopsy, but I think he drowned."

"How does a man drown in his own bathtub?"

"Drunk, I guess. He was found on the floor with his head and arms in the tub, under water. There was no sign of forced entry. The landlord had the key to this apartment, but there were some extra locks that we had to break in order to get in." The medical examiner explained.

"What about the windows?" Roy asked again, trying to take all the possibilities into consideration.

"All locked from inside. No one was here."

"Did you find any alcoholic drinks in the apartment?"

"We didn't look for that yet." The man admitted.

"Start looking. I want a full report on my desk as soon as possible."

"Aye, sir."

The Colonel went back to the living room looking for anything that seemed out of place. He didn't know Sergeant Carter personally, but had heard he was a clever hardworking man, who pretty much enjoyed living alone and had never called anyone's attention, until one week ago, when he called in sick and didn't go to work anymore. He was still lost in his thoughts when a blond serious-looking woman came in. She had a worried look on her face and Roy knew why.

"Good morning, Lieutenant."

"Good morning, sir. Do you think this man's death is related to the other cases?"

"Seems like it's too soon to tell, but I don't think it was an accident."

First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye agreed. There had been some weird deaths in the last few months. All of them soldiers, who had done their jobs as they were told and never had any complaints about them. As there was not a single lead to follow in any of the murders, the people responsible for the case decided to give it to somebody else and let them get to explain their own lack of progress to the higher-ups. Colonel Mustang was now stuck with it. And both he and Lieutenant Hawkeye knew the real reason he had gotten that case. Somebody wanted to see him fail.

Two soldiers walked in with a gurney to take the dead man to the morgue. The Colonel was examining the locks on the windows when Lt. Havoc, who had left the scene to talk to other soldiers, came back.

"Two people were arrested near here, sir. They broke into an abandoned house on the block and were caught just after leaving."

"Do you have any reason to believe they're involved?"

"I don't know, but you should come see this. The house they broke into, there are some weird symbols on the walls in the basement."

"Alchemy?"

"It might be."

"Let's go." The Colonel said to Lt. Havoc and Lt. Hawkeye.

Any lead now was important. The case seemed just impossible to solve. No evidence, nothing. Seven other people had died under mysterious circumstances inside their own homes, without any witnesses. The only evidence they had, suggested these people had either been murdered, or had been extremely unlucky, like Tom Carter, who apparently had drowned in his own bathtub.

Roy thought that the arrest and the symbols Lt. Havoc told him about would give him an idea of what to do next, but he could now see he was wrong. After seeing the so called symbols, which actually resembled alchemy but weren't really related to it, he was now sitting in a room, with Lt. Hawkeye and the two suspects of a break-in. Both Roy and Riza stared at each other, before staring again at those two weird people sitting in front of them.

"So you say you traveled through time?" Colonel Mustang asked, unwilling to believe that man was actually serious about it.

"We don't know what exactly happened. All we recall is being in a commercial flight to Atlanta." Scully explained in her professional tone, like she was lecturing her students.

"Commercial what?"

"Commercial flight. Airplane. To Atlanta."

"There's no use Scully… They have no idea what an airplane is." Mulder said.

"Then perhaps you wouldn't mind telling me." Roy said, impatiently.

That was the weirdest interrogatory ever. They had interrogated strange suspects before, but those two had just raised the bar when it came to weird people.

"You know what a train is, right?" Mulder asked.

"Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, sir. An airplane is like a train… that flies. Simple as that."

Scully rolled her eyes, thinking that there had to be a thousand better definitions for the word 'airplane'.

"You're telling me you were in a flying train… in the future… and all of a sudden you ended up in the basement of that house, without any recollection of how you got there whatsoever?"

"I know it sounds strange, but w-"

"Lock them up, Lieutenant. Maybe some rest in a cell will teach them not to play games."

"Yes, sir." Lt. Hawkeye answered right away.

"We've had our share of weirdness, already. If it taught us anything it was to keep our minds open." Mulder still shouted, while Lt. Hawkeye ordered them to stand up and walk.

"If you had seen half the stuff we've seen, you would at least listen to us."

Roy was about to leave, but stopped at the door.

"I've never liked the military anyway…" Mulder was now muttering under his breath.

"You say you had your share of weirdness, is that so?" Roy turned around and asked.

That man was interesting, to say the least. There was something of a madman's spark in his eyes, but he seemed perfectly lucid.

"We work for the FBI, more specifically in the X-Files." Scully said this time. "I'm usually a little more resistant to believing in paranormal phenomena than my partner here, but this time I can't find a scientific explanation for what happened. I believe agent Mulder is right."

"You traveled through time…"

"Yes."

"You gotta be kidding…"

"Then how do you explain the weird symbols in that basement?" Mulder asked.

"Somebody's idea of a joke?"

"Maybe somebody wanted us to come here."

"Why would anyone want you to come here?" He asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Before Mulder could answer, something in the Colonel's pocket made a ringing noise. The man probably wasn't expecting that, because he suddenly grabbed the object and dropped it on the floor. The object vibrated, moving to the side as though it had a life of its own, while the Colonel and the Lieutenant watched it completely puzzled.

"It's just the alarm clock of my cell phone. I programmed it to ring in the morning." Mulder said.

Roy was still staring at that strange object he had taken from Mulder, like it was something potentially dangerous. He had taken one from Scully as well, but that one didn't ring or anything.

"What the hell is that?"

"It's a cell phone. It vibrates when it rings, but it won't explode or burst into flames… May I turn it off?"

"Go ahead." The Colonel said dismissively.

"Here." Mulder said, handing Roy the cell phone. "Have you seen this kind of technology before?"

"What's this thing?"

"It's a kind of portable phone. It won't work now, because there's no signal."

Somebody knocked on the door and the Colonel ordered them to come in. Lt. Havoc walked into the room, smoking a cigarette.

"Anything on that house?"

"It's abandoned. Nobody saw them get in, though the neighbors say they saw an old man walking around the house yesterday."

"That thing causes cancer, you know." Mulder said, pointing at Havoc's cigarette.

"Cancer?"

"Scully, as the medical doctor in the room would you delight us with a little health lecture?" Mulder said.

"We know what cancer is…" Roy said, sounding a bit bored.

"Do you know smoking dramatically increases your chances of having lung cancer?" Mulder continued talking.

"Does it?" Lt. Havoc asked, looking kind of worried.

"Have you heard of all the respiratory problems you can have? Not a nice way to die… And passive smokers can be affected, too."

"Havoc, put that out." The Colonel ordered.

Lt. Havoc obeyed and then stared at the two FBI agents, with a questioning look on his face. He knew smoking was said to be bad for their health, but had never heard of it being related to something like cancer. *

"Who are you?" Roy asked once more.

"I believe you have our credentials." Scully said, crossing her arms.

The Colonel got their FBI credentials once more, along with all the other documents they were carrying.

"That's my flight ticket." Scully added, when she noticed Roy was reading the plane ticket she had bought.

"October 26, 1996…"

"That's the date where we were."

"And your country has the technology to build portable phones and flying trains?" The Colonel asked.

"Yes, you saw my cell phone. It's the same as agent Scully's."

"All that thing did was ring. Even my alarm clock does that."

"Can I have it for a second?" Mulder asked. "My cell phone? Or Agent Scully's cell phone."

Colonel Mustang handed him one of the cell phones, wondering what the man would do this time and Mulder turned it on.

"What are you doing?" Scully asked.

"Showing him that our technology is way too advanced to be from this world."

"You can't call anyone if there's no signal, Mulder."

"I'm not calling anyone. Here. See the buttons, you can control which direction this thing goes by pressing them."

Mulder handed Roy the cell phone again and pointed at the buttons. Music started playing from the electronic device, as Roy pressed the buttons he was told to press and watched the little screen, really amazed. Lt. Havoc and Lt. Hawkeye couldn't help but looking over his shoulders at what he was doing.

"Mulder…" Scully called, pulling on her partner's jacket.

"What?"

"Please tell me you didn't have him play that snake game on my cell phone…"

"So what?" Mulder asked in a low voice and Scully could see he actually found the situation funny. Of course it wouldn't be so funny if the Colonel thought they weren't taking him seriously.

The music coming from the cell phone changed and stopped. The Colonel stared at the object with a puzzled expression, as trying to figure out what had happened. Mulder took a couple of steps forward and pointed at the screen again.

"You made the snake eat either the brick wall or its own tail. You should move it towards the black dots that keep showing up." The agent explained.

"What's the purpose of this thing?" Mustang asked.

"It's merely entertainment. Just a game."

"I thought this was a phone."

"It is. It has other functions, though. Have you seen anything like it before? A picture on a screen that moves according to your control?"

"No." Roy admitted.

"So now you believe we're from the future?"

"We'll see."

The Colonel turned around and left the room, ordering Lt. Havoc to take them to a cell. Even though the electronic device seemed to be something futuristic, the idea of someone traveling through time was quite hard to believe.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, second chapter was a lot more interesting for the FMA fans! Just like I promised! Again, if you find anything wrong in the text, please correct me… You know… English is my second language…

* I did some research and found out that the first scientific article that made a connection between smoking and cancer came out in 1925 (if I'm not mistaken…). I don't know if they already suspected smoking to cause cancer at the time the FMA story takes place, but I decided that in this story they wouldn't know about it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA or TXF… And just in case you're thinking I must be stoned to write something like this story, I don't own any drugs either. I'm a healthy person, if you don't take my coffee addiction into consideration…

I want to thank Hina-Kita for the review and I hope I'll get some more reviews this time. Please, guys, just let me know what you think of this story.

* * *

**Chapter 3**

Sergeant Kain Fuery looked, very intrigued, at the object he had just managed to open. He was used to working with electronic devices and was actually good at fixing radios, telephones and other things. He had never seen anything like that, though.

"What do you think?" Colonel Mustang asked. "They called it a cell phone."

The man scratched his head, messing up his short spiky black hair a bit. He adjusted his glasses on his face and held one of the parts in the air, looking really amazed.

"I've never seen anything like it. I'm not an expert in this kind of thing, but… I don't know…" He said, feeling a little confused.

"Do you think this could be some kind of foreign technology?"

"It probably is. I honestly don't think we have the technology to make something like this. Maybe we could have someone else take a look at it."

"I'd like to keep a low profile on this."

"Yes, sir. Well, why don't you ask Edward's automail mechanic to look at it?" Sergeant Fuery suggested.

"That's right, Edward and Alphonse should be in the city now. They were looking for you yesterday, sir." Lt. Hawkeye said to the Colonel.

"Good. Havoc, find them and tell them to meet me in my office."

"Yessir." Lt. Havoc said and jumped from his chair.

It wasn't until the end of the afternoon when Edward Elric, also known as the Fullmetal Alchemist, walked into Roy's office, followed closely by his younger brother. Although Alphonse was one year younger than Edward, no one would have guessed it. Alphonse wore a big suit of armor and was much taller than Edward. They greeted Lt. Hawkeye and Col. Mustang and sat down.

"We need to ask you a favor." Edward said.

Edward didn't like to depend on the Colonel, but this time they had hit a dead end. They needed some information and suspected the man would be able to tell them exactly what they wanted to know.

"Of course… What can I do for you?" Roy said in an almost enthusiastic voice that made the brothers think something was wrong.

"We need to contact this person." Edward said and put a piece of paper on the Colonel's desk. "He's a former state alchemist. We want to ask him about the philosopher's stone, but no one will tell us where he lives."

Roy got the piece of paper and saw the name written in a hurry by someone that wasn't Edward. The boy's handwriting was different. It didn't take Roy more than five seconds to remember who the person was.

"He's quite a secluded person. You won't find him so easily."

"But you know where he lives."

"Maybe I do." He said, resting his elbows on his desk and smirking at the two brothers.

"All right…" Edward mumbled, staring at his boss, very annoyed. "What do you want from us?"

"I need to talk to your mechanic."

"Why?"

"I have something I want her to take a look at."

"Don't you have automail mechanics in the army?"

"I want to keep a low profile on this. I can't talk to anyone in the army."

"So you actually can't order me to do this, because we're talking off record…" Edward said, also with a smirk on his face. He was so going to take advantage of this.

"I suppose you want to know where this man you want to talk to lives…"

"He's got you, brother…" Alphonse said, slightly embarrassed by his brother's behavior. He should be used to it by now, but it still bothered him sometimes.

"Hunf… Okay, I'll call her here, but what should I say?"

"Tell her you broke your automail or something."

"She will break my head when she gets here!"

"I'll talk to her."

"What is it that you want to talk to her, anyway?" He asked suspiciously.

"Can I trust you two not to tell anyone?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Then come with me. It might be a good idea to let you see something."

*********

Mulder was sitting in their cramped cell, thinking about how much he would like some sunflower seeds right now and Scully was just standing by the door, looking at the empty cell across the corridor.

"Do you think they're gonna believe us?" Mulder asked.

"Would you?"

"I would. After all the cases we saw in the X-Files, I have an open mind."

The X-Files were an obscure department in the FBI. Mulder and Scully, the only two agents working in the X-Files, shared an office in the basement of the FBI building and were responsible for investigating cases that were considered unsolvable and were shelved by the FBI. They had indeed investigated all kinds of weird cases all over the United States. Ghosts, demons, mutants, government conspiracies, aliens… And every time they thought they had already seen everything, a completely different case would show up.

"Your mind is too open, sometimes." Scully added, as she was very skeptical most of the time. "Someone is coming."

"Colonel nice-hair, again?" Mulder joked.

"He's not alone."

Scully stepped back, clearly intimidated. Mulder stood up and walked towards the door, in order to see what had made her nervous. What he saw made him take a few steps back as well.

"How do you like our accommodations?" Col. Mustang asked.

Lieutenant Hawkeye rolled her eyes, a bit embarrassed by his not-so-nice sense of humor. Two people Mulder and Scully didn't know were behind them. One was a short boy with long blond hair and the other, whoever he was, was wearing a big suit of armor and was more than two meters tall.

Mulder and Scully both stared at the imposing metal figure, ignoring the other people around.

"Ehrm… Hello." The suit of armor said in a child's voice. Alphonse would blush it he could, considering how the two prisoners were staring at him, with their mouths open.

Both agents weren't expecting someone so big to have such a gentle voice. Somehow that made them calm down a little bit. Roy unlocked the door of the cell and called the two to an office. After Mulder and Scully sat down, he introduced the two boys to them.

"Fullmetal has some questions for you." Mustang added.

"You said he's an alchemist?" Mulder asked enthusiastically.

"Yeah, I'm an alchemist. About th-" Edward started to say.

"You know how to use alchemy?" Mulder interrupted him.

Mulder had never met anyone who claimed to know alchemy and now that kid was said to be a state alchemist. In other words, alchemy had to be something acknowledged in that country.

"Yeah, yeah… What w-"

"How old are you?" Mulder asked again.

"What does that matter?" Edward said in an angry voice.

"You're with the army?"

"He's a qualified state alchemist, answer his questions…" Roy said impatiently.

"What the hell were those symbols on the wall?" Edward asked.

He really didn't have the professional tone of voice Col. Mustang and Lt. Hawkeye had. In fact, he couldn't be more than 14 or 15 years old, Scully thought, slightly annoyed by being questioned by a teenager.

"It bits me. I've never seen them before." Mulder said calmly, leaning backwards on his chair.

"Someone else must have painted them not long before we got there. The paint was still fresh. If you dust the walls for prints I'm pretty sure you can get something." Scully said.

"Prints?"

"Oh, God… You don't have a print database at all, do you?"

"Whatever." Edward interrupted. "Those symbols weren't alchemy. Did they mean anything?"

"We don't know, but probably yes. I believe someone drawn them to bring us here. Or maybe it wasn't their intent, but something went wrong. Anyway, we're here." Mulder explained.

Mulder didn't mind if they thought he was crazy. He was already used to that kind of look he got from the others around him. After all, his reputation had earned him his famous nickname 'Spooky Mulder'.

"Where are you from?" Alphonse asked.

"We're from the United States, but from the future."

"Future?"

They repeated the story of how they had gotten there to Alphonse and Edward. Both of them seemed surprised, but a little more willing to take them seriously.

"Could that be related to the homunculi?" Edward asked the Colonel.

"I don't think they're related to them."

"They look human to me…" Edward cogitated.

"Look who's talking weird now, Scully." Mulder said.

"Anyway, when is your mechanic arriving?" Roy asked Edward.

"Probably tomorrow afternoon."

"We'll talk again tomorrow." The Colonel said and they left. Mulder and Scully were taken back to their cell where they could do nothing but wait.

Lieutenant Hawkeye came back a few minutes later, to ask if they needed anything.

"I would ask you to turn on the air-conditioning, but I don't think you have one." Mulder said. "Do you have any sunflower seeds?"

"What for?" Riza asked, a bit curious about the strange request.

"To eat."

"You eat sunflower seeds?"

"I don't get it either…" Scully said. "Do you have coffee?"

"Yes, I'll have the guard bring you some. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

"Have a good night… At least you can sleep in a decent bed…" Mulder complained, more to himself than to the lieutenant.

***********

It was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the next day and the train station was crowded. Lots of people traveled to and from Central City everyday and you could see some really peculiar travelers there.

"I can't believe you already managed to break your automail AGAIN!"

All the people around looked at the group formed by three teenagers. A blond girl dressed in black clothes was yelling very loudly at a boy, who was wise enough not to get too close to her. He was actually trying to hide behind an armored boy.

"Winry, calm down! I didn't break it!" Edward yelled, still hiding behind Alphonse in case Winry got her wrench in the bag.

"You d-" She started to say, but stopped when both the brothers asked her to be quiet. "What's wrong with you?"

"We need you to take a look at something for us, but we can't let anyone know about it."

"Why didn't you tell me before? I came all the way here… You should have brought it to me. I have work to do." She said in a much lower voice this time.

"We don't have it." Alphonse explained. "Come with us and we'll explain it all."

Winry Rockbell was their childhood friend and she knew they had gotten in trouble before, so she was a little concerned while they walked towards the military headquarters. However, her concern completely vanished after she understood what they wanted her to do.

"You want me to analyze some strange foreign technology used in a portable phone? That's so cool!" She said in an overly enthusiastic voice.

"Machine freak…" Edward muttered.

"You shouldn't talk like that to a girl, Fullmetal…" Col. Mustang said.

Even though the Colonel wasn't usually nice towards Edward, he tended to be very polite towards women. At least most of the time. However, he quickly noticed there was no need to scold Edward for being impolite, since the girl waved a wrench in the air and the boy hid behind Lt. Hawkeye, thinking that even though Winry didn't mind attacking Alphonse to get to him, she would never hit the Lieutenant.

"Well, I hope we didn't cause you too much trouble." Roy went on talking.

"Not at all, I'd love to help!" Winry said.

"What happened to the _I-have-work-to-do _thing?" Edward complained.

"That's because I didn't know it was something so cool."

Lieutenant Hawkeye gave Winry the two cell phones. One of them had been opened by Sergeant Fuery and the other was still in one piece, although a few scratches were seen on the screen and you couldn't read some of the numbers on the dialing buttons. She started looking at the disassembled cell phone, studying the different parts and thinking.

"So?"

"I'd like to take a better look, but… it's completely different from anything I've seen. How do you turn it on?" Winry asked.

The Colonel shrugged, but Riza got the cell phone. She had paid close attention when Mulder was using it to try to convince them that their story was true.

"I believe he pressed this red button here." She said, although not completely sure about it.

"Yes, it worked. Wow, so cool…"

She looked fascinated at the screen and letters appeared on it.

"Low battery?"

"What?" Edward asked, looking at the strange device over her shoulder.

"It says low battery. I mean, it's written on the screen."

She started pressing buttons, amazed at how the picture on the screen changed. The cell phone beeped and the low battery message showed up again. This time, it just turned off on its own.

"Low battery… Ah, so that's what this thing is!" Winry said, holding a square part from the other cell phone. "It's probably the battery!"

"Well then, what can you tell us about this object?" The Colonel asked.

"Whoever made this is a genius! It's definitely from some other country. Especially because, from what I understand, this thing captures a signal. So you need some device to send the signals in a way people can use these as phones to talk to each other, right?"

"I suppose…" Colonel Mustang said.

He wasn't really into technology and hardware, like Sergeant Fuery or Winry.

"From which country is this?" Winry asked.

"We're not sure yet."

"Wow, this technology is much more advanced than ours. The technology we use in automails is advanced too, but it's just completely different…" Winry went on talking, until something dawned on her.

"How far away do you think their technology is from ours?" Roy asked the girl.

"Very far. I don't see anything like this being manufactured here anytime soon. Why? Is there a war threat or something you don't want to tell me?"

"No, we just wanted to know what this is. Thank you very much for your help. Fullmetal will take you to a hotel to spend the night if you want, right?" Colonel Mustang said, in a tone of voice that wouldn't take no as an answer.

Edward had no choice but to agree and left the Colonel's office with Winry and Alphonse. Roy stood up and left for the cells with the Lieutenant a few minutes later.

"All right, you two… If you come from the future, what are you doing here?" Roy asked, as he walked in the cell where Mulder and Scully were sitting down, looking utterly bored.

"We don't know." Scully answered.

"But I believe it may have something to do with whatever murder you're investigating." Mulder added.

"How do you know about the investigation?" Roy asked in a severe tone, crossing his arms.

"We were arrested because you thought we were suspects, wasn't it?" Scully said.

"Yes, that's correct, but what does it have to do with you if you're not involved?"

"We work for the FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation. Unexplained murder cases are our specialty." Mulder said in a good mood.

"I believe our experience could be of use." Scully added.

"You say this is not your country, not even your time, so why would you want to help us?"

"Someone brought us here. Maybe they wanted us to do something about it. Isn't it too much of a coincidence? That we were brought here, so close to the crime scene, on the day of the crime?"

The Colonel seemed to consider what Mulder said for a second and then decided to take them to see the crime scene. Maybe those two could find something different or at least suggest what their next step could be. At that point, any contribution to the investigation would be welcomed.

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**A/N: **Greetings! Here's the third chapter, like I promised! It's one day late, but I just started on a new job and forgot to post it yesterday. Well, I hope you enjoy the chapter and leave a review. Thanks for reading and see you next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: **What if I said I owned the two stories? Would anyone believe me anyway?? No! So I don't own FMA or TXF.

I want to say thanks to Ssadropout, Decoding Blue, Hina Kita and Muffins (thanks for the correction!) for reviewing in the last chapter.

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**Chapter 4**

The weather was still nice and warm at 6 o'clock in the evening and a man was leaning against a light pole on the sidewalk, trying not to think too much about how fast his heart was beating. It made him feel uncomfortable, but he couldn't help it. He was nervous. Even other people who walked by and saw him could tell that he wasn't feeling all right. He was short and his light grey hair was well hidden under a black hat. That man had been watching the entrance of the headquarters since the previous day and now it was going to get dark again. He had always felt like he was being watched when darkness came. He looked at his watch again, probably for the 50th time in the last few hours and then he saw the people he was looking for leave the building.

The tall man with dark brown hair and the red-headed woman left with two people in military uniforms.

"_Good." _He thought, as he watched them get in a car. However, not long after they left, he noticed someone he didn't want to see. "_Sengrat! Hell, I need to get out of here before he sees me…"_

The old man disappeared in an alley so quickly that the other didn't see him. The man called Sengrat sat on a bench on the other side of the street and opened a newspaper. He would raise his green eyes and stare at the street every two or three minutes. Actually, he wasn't even reading the news, but nobody would notice that. He wasn't the kind of person that stands out in a crowd. He was medium-height and his receding short hair was light brown. He wore shabby plain black and grey clothes and didn't have any particularly interesting features. No scars, no glasses, nothing.

*********

Lieutenant Hawkeye was now observing Mulder while he examined Tom Carter's kitchen. He had completely forgotten about everything that had happened and was very focused on the case now. Mulder opened the kitchen cabinets, went through all the stuff in the refrigerator and even smelled any food he found. Not once did he seem to mind being watched.

"Why are you doing that?" Riza just had to ask. He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he answered, but didn't stop what he was doing, not even to look at her face.

"You said you didn't find any alcoholic beverage in the apartment, so maybe the sergeant ate something bad, got intoxicated and lost conscious in the bathroom."

The Lieutenant was a little surprised. After all, it was very unlikely, but still a possibility. Mulder went on searching the place. While the agent walked to the bedroom and started opening the wardrobe doors, drawers and boxes, Colonel Mustang watched Scully study the place where Carter had met his end.

"Was anything here touched or moved?" She asked.

"Probably." He said, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

Even though he looked bored, he was paying attention to her every move.

"Did you see the crime scene before anything was changed?" Scully asked, making an effort not to let any annoyance show.

"The body was moved before I got here."

"Great…"

This time it was more than clear that she was irritated and considered them to be incompetent. Colonel Mustang frowned, thinking that they'd better be as good at investigations as they said they were. Otherwise, he would have no problems throwing them back in their cell and reporting them as illegal immigrants.

"Do you know if the sergeant had any cardiac condition?" Scully asked.

"The medical examiner said he might have had a heart attack."

"But he didn't cut him open, did he?"

"No."

"Okay…"

The Colonel was slightly embarrassed this time. Scully, however, didn't even notice. She kneeled on the floor and looked very closely at the bathtub. Something on the tub drain called her attention. She grabbed it and held it in the air, very interested.

"A fingernail?" The Colonel asked, feeling very disappointed.

Agent Scully didn't say anything and kept on looking for any evidence that might have been overlooked. She thoroughly inspected the shower curtain and this time she found something a little more relevant.

"What is it?"

"A blood stain."

"There was no blood in the scene."

"There is now. Do you remember if the Sergeant had any broken fingernails?"

"Maybe he did, I would have to ask the medical examiner."

"This whole place is a mess… Did you find anything?" Mulder asked, standing by the bathroom door and eating some crackers he had found in the kitchen.

"I believe Tom Carter may not have had an accident." Scully said.

"Why is that?"

She told him very quickly about what she had found and asked him to come closer for a second. Mulder took a few steps forward. He could imagine what she would ask him to do next.

"Let's say you were going to take a bath, what would you do?" Scully asked.

Mulder started acting out like he was going to do what agent Scully had just said. Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye just observed them, both thinking the two agents had a very different way of working.

"I open the faucet and let hot water fill the bathtub…" He said, pretending to fill the bathtub with water. "I come back… maybe I try the water to see if it's good… I close the faucet or I just leave it open…"

Scully came from behind Mulder and put her hand on the back of his neck.

"I come from behind you and hold your head down in the water."

"Well, I think I should do something about it…" Mulder said, moving his hands, trying to reach her. From where he was, he just couldn't.

"I try to push the walls and get up, but you're stronger than me. I panic and try to hold on to anything. I accidentally hit my hand on the tub or on the wall and break my fingernail." Mulder continued.

"You also stain the shower curtain." Scully added.

They finished their performance and stood up, as though all that was just FBI protocol for weird murder investigations.

"There wasn't any blood on Carter's fingers…" Roy said, impressed by how they tried to relive a murder, like it was just some game.

That was a little disturbing.

"Back to the bathtub…" Mulder said, kneeling on the floor again and sticking his head in the tub. "I fight, I can't win, I die…" He said in a neutral voice.

Roy paid close attention to how the man lied in there, pretending to be dead and suddenly it made sense.

"Your hands are still in the tub. The water washes away any blood from recent wounds…" The Colonel said.

"So maybe he had wounds that we didn't notice." Riza said.

"The autopsy will tell us more. If you don't mind, I'd like to examine the body myself." Scully said.

"She's a medical doctor." Mulder felt a little explanation was called for when both soldiers gave her a curious look.

Later that night Col. Mustang gathered his subordinates in his office, while the two FBI agents waited in another room. Roy didn't like to admit it, but they could be helpful in the case. Mulder and Scully did seem to know a lot about crime investigation. They could still be spies, although he didn't think it was very likely anymore.

"They'll be joining the investigation?" Heymans Breda asked.

"Yes. I don't think they're spies, although we can't be sure." Col. Mustang continued.

"In that case, we shouldn't provide them with any information that's not related to the investigation." Riza added.

"That's right. We won't tell them anything about our country's politics or the army. Mulder was specifically interested in alchemy and we won't talk about that either."

"I believe they don't know you're an alchemist."

"No, I'm sure they don't." Roy confirmed.

"May I suggest something, sir?" Fallman asked.

"Yes?"

"Let's not allow them to talk to each other when they're alone."

"That's a good idea. They can stay in separate dorms in the headquarters. They also won't leave their dorms alone."

That said, the Colonel said he himself would take the agents to the morgue. The medical examiner had reported water coming out of the dead man's nose and mouth, but apart from that, no real autopsy had been performed. People felt a bit uncomfortable about disturbing the body of a man they had previously worked with and wouldn't want to cut him open. Besides, they wanted his body to be in one piece for the funeral. Earlier that day Roy would have thought there was no reason for a more detailed exam since Carter had obviously drowned. After Mulder's and Scully's performance in the apartment, he was starting to reconsider the way they usually conducted investigations in the army.

"The deceased is a man, 48 years old, about 5 feet 8 tall…" Scully started to say, as she looked at the body on the table. Her voice sounded cold and detached.

"Wait, I can't write that fast…" Mulder complained, as he took notes of everything she said on a notebook he had gotten from Lt. Hawkeye.

Colonel Mustang and Lieutenant Hawkeye observed them from a certain distance. The body was already starting to smell bad and they didn't think it would get any better after agent Scully started the autopsy.

"There are two broken nails on the right hand…"

"On… the right… hand…" Mulder said, writing as fast as he could.

Scully went on describing every external detail. Both Roy and Riza got the feeling that she had performed many autopsies before.

"Look at this, Colonel." Mulder called, lifting the dead man's hand in the air to show him the bruised knuckles and some cuts.

"Hm. Maybe he got it fighting to get out of the tub?"

"No, that's old. Probably 3 or 4 days before he died." Scully said. "And… there's something in here…"

She got a pair of tweezers and a scalpel and removed the scab from a cut.

"Glass…" She said, putting the small piece of glass in a container with water.

"There was a broken mirror in the bedroom. I think he punched it." Mulder said.

"Why would he do that?" Lt. Hawkeye asked.

"I don't know… yet."

"Help me turn the body around." Scully asked.

Mulder, who was wearing rubber gloves, helped his partner turn Tom Carter's body around. They had just finished placing him in a better position to be examined when Mulder smiled triumphantly.

"What?"

"Check this out, Colonel."

"He's got a bruise on the back of his neck." Scully explained.

Roy got closer to take a look, trying to breathe through his mouth. He was used to dead bodies in the battlefield, but not in a closed space like the morgue, where the smell could get really bad.

"Looks like a hand." He said.

"Yeah." Mulder agreed. "Now your accident is officially a murder."

"Great… There was no sign of forced entry…"

"You know what that means, right?" Mulder asked.

"Sergeant Carter knew the person who killed him…" Roy said.

"That's right."

Even with the new evidence, Scully wasn't satisfied yet, so she continued her autopsy. Lieutenant Hawkeye and Colonel Mustang preferred not to stay too close to the body, but Mulder didn't seem to care about it much. He stayed around Scully, eventually asking questions, commenting details or just making jokes. Scully just kept on dictating things for him to write down while cutting all the organs open and also made fun of Mulder for having bad handwriting.

"You can understand my writing, can't you?"

"Mulder, if you wrote any worse, people would think your writing is encrypted."

"I love working with you, too, Scully…"

Scully concluded that the Sergeant had really drowned and hadn't had a heart attack, so they left the morgue about two o'clock in the morning and Riza took the agents to their new accommodations in the headquarters. Mulder and Scully got separate dorms and Havoc soon arrived to watch the doors so they wouldn't leave. Colonel Mustang went back to his building, looking forward to a hot shower and a night of sleep. They would have a lot of work to do the next day, especially because agents Mulder and Scully would want more detailed information about the other weird murders that had happened recently.

Roy opened the door and entered the building, but didn't notice the man hiding in the shadows, just across the street. Green eyes watched as a light in the fourth floor was turned on and the Colonel showed up on the window, only to close the curtains, completely unaware that he was being observed.

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**N/A: **This chapter is two days late because of a burned computer part that needed to be replaced. It should be all right now. Next chapter will hopefully be on time. I hope you like this chapter here and please, leave reviews. Thanks to everybody and I'll leave you with a joke that a friend of mine wrote in my fic. Her comment is in bold.

_While the agent went to the bedroom and started opening the wardrobe doors, drawers and boxes, Colonel Mustang watched Scully study the place where Carter had met his end._

"_Was anything here touched or moved?" __**She asked, looking at a dozen of footprints, an empty box of donuts and some old empty coffee cups.**_

"_Probably…"_


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA or TXF… I just own the characters that I myself created! And they're ugly. =P

I want to say thanks to Hina Kita and Ssadropout for their reviews!

I was going to update yesterday, but I got nightshift at work so I couldn't. 5th chapter one day late, sorry…

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**Chapter 5**

Colonel Mustang found it hard to wake up the next morning. He had gone to bed at about three o'clock and now the alarm clock went off at eight. He rolled out of bed, shaved and got dressed. He was preparing something to eat when somebody knocked on the door.

A man with green eyes smiled at him and took off his hat as soon as Roy opened the door. His short light brown hair was a little messed up by the hat, but the guy quickly straightened it with a gentle stroke of his left hand.

"Good morning, sir. I hope I didn't wake you up."

"No, you didn't. What can I do for you?" Roy answered.

"I'm with the phone company. There's been a problem and some lines have been disconnected. Do you mind if I check yours?" He asked, showing him identification from the phone company that Roy didn't bother to check.

"Come on in."

The man entered the apartment, laid a small toolbox on the floor and went straight to the phone. He grabbed it and started dialing some numbers. Roy went back to the table to get a cup of coffee. He was going to ask the man about the problem with the lines when a loud noise came from the street, followed by lots of screaming.

"Wow, what was that?" The phone company man asked.

"Sounded like an explosion. Stay here!" The Colonel ordered.

Roy left in a hurry to check out what had happened, leaving the door open. The phone company man looked down the corridor to be sure he was really gone and then let out an evil smile.

"So easy it was even boring…" He said to himself. He put the receiver back into place and shoved his hand in his pocket, searching for something. The phone company man got a small glass container with a metal lid and looked at some black liquid inside it, with a smirk on his face. "Time to work, my little friend…" He said in a mean tone of voice.

Out on the street, some startled people had gathered around something and smoke was coming from it. Roy managed to get close enough to examine the object, but all he saw was a blown up trash can.

"What happened here?" He asked.

"Some kids must have put dynamite in this trash can…" Said a woman.

"Kids nowadays…" Some else complained.

Roy just took a closer look at what was left of the can. It was completely destroyed. He went back to his apartment, very irritated that he had run all the way there only because someone, probably a teenager with a lousy sense of humor, had decided to make some noise early in the morning. Good thing that at least no one had gotten hurt.

"Kid's prank." He said, as he got into his apartment again.

"Oh, was it? Kids, huh…" The phone company man said. "Your phone's doing alright." He added.

"Good, thank you, Mister…"

"Sengrat. Have a nice day, Mr. Mustang."

The man put his hat back on and left. The Colonel closed the door after him and sat on the couch to finish his coffee. Only then it occurred to him, that he hadn't said his name to the man. The phone guy had called him Mr. Mustang. He probably had a list of the people whose phones he was supposed to check, Roy concluded. He finally grabbed the files from the other murder cases he had with him and left for work.

Mulder and Scully were brought by Warrant Officer Fallman to Roy's office at about 10 o'clock in the morning. If it weren't for worse situations they had gotten into before, the two agents would be really annoyed by the treatment they were getting.

"Why is that we can't even talk to each other anymore?" Mulder asked Roy, the moment he set foot in the office.

"Because I said so." Colonel Mustang said. He was tired of those two questioning him. "Besides, you only can't talk to each other when you're alone."

"Do you have any more information for us?" Scully asked quickly, before Mulder could start arguing. He could get carried away sometimes, especially when he got obsessed about something.

"As a matter of fact I do. There have been other unexplained murders and we believe they're all connected." Col. Mustang said, getting the files from the other cases.

"Was it the same _modus operandi_?" Scully asked.

"Same what?" Roy asked, hiding his annoyance. He wasn't familiar with many words and expressions the agents used and this was getting on his nerves already. However, they seemed to know a lot about investigations and the Colonel knew it would probably be better to just put up with them and their weird way of working.

"Did the killer act the same way?" Mulder rephrased it.

"No. Lieutenant, tell them how these other people died."

Riza got the files from his hand and started reading the causes of death.

"Francis Bennet, stabbed on the abdomen with a broken broomstick. Murder weapon was left on the scene. No signs of forced entry. Johen Hewitt, strangled with electric wire… murder weapon on the scene, no forced entry. Elias Lockheed had his Carotid artery severed by a piece of broken glass…"

"Let me guess. All murder weapons found on the scenes, no signs of forced entry in any of the cases." Mulder interrupted Riza.

"That's correct."

"This killer didn't use the same method to kill twice… or did he? Or she?

"You don't think a woman could that, do you?" Roy asked.

"For what I've seen before, I should also include 'or it' in my question…" Mulder said very calmly, like such possibility didn't worry him. He didn't use to worry about things too much and he had already seen all kinds of monsters and mutants. He was very interested in these things, more like obsessed. Not really obsessed with monsters, but with the truth.

"Actually one more victim was strangled with electric wire and two others were hit on the head with heavy objects." Riza went on with the list.

"That's seven deaths, if we count Sergeant Carter." Scully added.

"Eight. There's also Alice Franklin. Someone smothered her with a pillow."

"All of them were soldiers and all lived alone." Roy added.

"Very convenient." Mulder said to Scully.

"No witnesses…" She said, like she read his mind.

"What is your opinion about these cases?"

"Well, whoever did this holds a grudge against the military. The killer may be a soldier as well."

"Interesting, I also considered this." Roy said.

"The killer is obviously strong and the victims probably knew him. That's the connection we've got to find. And my guess is that he uses whatever he finds at the victim's houses to kill them. I don't think he plans how he's going to kill his victims." Mulder exposed his theory.

"We'll need more information." Scully said, since she could see the Colonel wasn't willing to let them read the files he had.

"All right… Lt. Havoc will provide you with any information you need, Ms. Scully. Mr. Mulder, you'll want more information too, I suppose. Lt. Hawkeye will help you."

"Do we get to talk to each other or should we try telepathy?" Mulder said, in a challenging tone of voice. Scully looked away from them, thinking that her partner was really pushing his luck.

"Telepathy will be fine… You can report what you find to me and talk to each other when I'm present." The Colonel said, like he didn't really care for Mulder's jokes. He was already used to some insubordinations.

"And if you're not present?"

"I'll let you talk to each other if either Lt. Hawkeye or Lt. Havoc is with you. Otherwise, good luck with your telepathy."

That said, they were dismissed. Scully left with Lt. Havoc and Mulder with Lt. Hawkeye. Both of them could work on their own without a problem, but it could be awkward to be working while everybody there was so suspicious of them.

"What do you need?" Havoc asked Scully.

"Where were these crimes? Can you provide me with specific locations?"

"No problem."

He took Scully back to the office and looked at the files. Colonel Mustang was reading some documents and three other people were either reading or writing. Everyone was busy and just ignored them. Havoc found a map and they started marking the exact locations of the crimes.

Mulder, however, was more interested in the fact that Carter didn't go to work for days before he died. Lieutenant Hawkeye told him most of the victims had missed days of work, too. She could notice a spark on Mulder's eyes after telling him about that detail.

"I suppose they received threats." She said, even though she still didn't know about Mulder's habit of coming up with paranormal-phenomena-related theories to explain his cases.

"That's one possibility." Mulder said, thinking that working with Lt. Hawkeye might not be so different from working with skeptical agent Scully, although he could make jokes when working with his FBI partner and Lieutenant Hawkeye didn't seem to be the kind of person who enjoyed jokes much.

"Can you take me to the crime scenes?" He asked.

"To some of them, yes. Some of the places have been cleared and other people live there now."

"Take me where you can."

Mulder and Lieutenant Hawkeye spent the afternoon at three different crime scenes. Mulder inspected every inch of the places so thoroughly that after some time even Riza was tired of watching him. Meanwhile, Scully was marking the locations of the crimes on a map with help from Lieutenant Havoc and trying to find a connection between the victims.

"I need to know where these people worked and which missions they were assigned or took part in since the first death." Scully told Havoc.

"We already thought of that." Colonel Mustang said from his desk. He had been ignoring the agent so far, but finally decided to say something.

"I suppose you failed to find a connection."

"Most of these people didn't even know each other. Some fought the Ishval war, some joined the army after it."

Scully quickly mentioned that she didn't know what war he was talking about, so the Colonel told her in very few words about the war that had led to a massacre. The agent didn't seem to consider it important for the investigation. Her lack of interest in the war and the fact that she had never heard about it before reminded Roy that they were supposedly from the future.

"Did any of the victims do only office work?" Scully asked.

"You mean if they had combat experience."

"Yes."

"All of them did. All of them were soldiers and were involved in conflicts or battles at least once." Mustang explained.

"That's important for the investigation. I will have to tell agent Mulder about it. We can't help with the investigation if you withhold information." Scully confronted the man, letting no hesitation show.

"You'll be provided with any information you need, as long as it's relevant to the case." Roy insisted, not willing to change his mind.

Scully sighed. She knew it wouldn't be easy to help them, but if they didn't try, they'd be locked up in a cell again and treated as spies. They still didn't trust them. She wasn't surprised, though. The Colonel seemed to be a smart man and he wouldn't trust anyone he didn't know.

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**N/A: **Okay, new chapter online! I hope you liked it. Even if you didn't, please leave a review. I'll leave you with another version of one of the scenes in this chapter, written by my friend Poly-chan. her additions are in bold. I just had to laugh at this, hahaha.

"All of them were soldiers and all lived alone." Roy added.

"Very convenient." Mulder said to Scully. **"The life of a soldier is fucking boring."**

"No witnesses…" She said, like she read his mind**. "And shut up, Mulder. You too live alone and work to the government."**

**N/A2: ** Well guys, see you next week then and please don't forget to write a review! Thanks a lot!


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer:**I don't own them, don't bother me. =P

I want to say thank you to Wishfulliving89 and Hina Kita for their reviews! =)

I couldn't update yesterday because I got night shift… So I'm updating tonight. I should be doing my work now, but I have the whole night to do that, so why worry? XP

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**Chapter 6**

Mulder came back to the office with Riza in the end of the afternoon, so Scully showed him the map where she had marked the crimes. The man scratched his chin, while staring at the red marks on the paper. Scully shared the information she was given with him, but didn't ask for his opinion right away, knowing he would want to think about it first. Mulder sat down on a chair, biting his lower lip and staring at the flat image of the city, like his mind was somewhere else, too busy to pay attention to people around him.

"Did you find anything in the crime scenes, Mr. Mulder?" Roy asked him in a loud voice, trying to get the agent's attention.

"Huh?" Mulder asked.

"Did you find anything?" The Colonel repeated the question.

"Not really, but I have some doubts. We thought Sergeant Carter had received threats because he had extra locks in his apartment door, so he might be afraid that somebody would come in. Elias Lockheed also had three locks on his door, but two were rusted from lack of use and didn't work."

The Colonel did try to catch Mulder's train of thought and understand what he considered so important about that small detail. So Lockheed wasn't being threatened, was that what the FBI agent was trying to say? Could that be important for the investigation?

"And what's your opinion about that?" Roy asked.

"If Lockheed were threatened, he would try to keep anyone out of his house. He had extra locks, but why not use them? Or why not move to some other place? Run away? Ask for help? Maybe he knew it would be useless or maybe there was no way to keep whoever killed him outside."

"What do you mean by 'no way to keep them outside'?"

"These people probably suffered from some kind of stress. They missed days of work and their homes were all a mess… The first victim fired 5 shots in his apartment, two days before being impaled with a broken broomstick."

Colonel Mustang knew part of his theory made sense, but he couldn't understand what exactly Mulder expected the killer to be. The agent hadn't been able to see the place where the first victim had been killed because other people were living in that apartment now, but Lt. Hawkeye had described the crime scene for him as thoroughly as she could. He now seemed to know most of the important information about it and still couldn't tell them much. After all, the case was far more complicated than the occasional murders they had in Central City.

"Well, I have some doubts, too." Scully said and showed Mulder a page on the notebook where she had written all the dates of the crimes.

The first crime had happened on June 17 and the most recent one, when Sergeant Carter was killed, was on September 13. There was a gap of about 8 to 10 days between half of the murders, but that gap doubled to 17 or 18 days in between some of the cases.

"That's odd." Mulder said.

"As you see, the first victim died on June 17. The second victim died 8 days later, on June 25. Then 18 days later Elias Lockheed was killed. The next victim died 17 days later and the fifth victim died 9 days after that." Scully said.

"The sixth victim died 17 days later, on August 25, then the seventh was killed 10 days later and Tom Carter died on September 13, 8 days later." Mulder completed her ideas by reading the notes she had taken.

"Had you noticed this pattern?" Mulder asked the Colonel.

"Actually yes, I have it on the reports."

"If you keep testing us, we'll waste time." Scully complained, very annoyed.

She knew those people weren't familiar with the FBI, so their qualifications didn't mean a thing to them. She would expect them to be unsure about their investigation skills, but that uncertainty was starting to become a problem.

"I understand you don't know us, but you're going to have to trust our abilities if you want us to help." She added.

"This killer is a dangerous person." Mulder said this time. "He used anything he could find at the victim's houses as a weapon, which means he didn't plan the killing in advance, he improvised. He's probably arrogant and very confident of his own abilities."

"And what do you think about the longer gaps in between the murders?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked Mulder's opinion.

The Colonel glanced quizzically at the Lieutenant, but she didn't notice. After watching Mulder investigate the three crime scenes so thoroughly, considering every possibility, focusing on every detail, Riza had to admit she had come to respect him a little more, even though he had shared some of his thoughts with her that afternoon and those were unusual, to say the least.

"The gaps in between the cases are kind of constant. The killer probably suffers from some kind of psychosis. Maybe he's compelled to kill by some religious or supernatural belief. It might even have something to do with the moon phases. Maybe there's a specific moment to kill. He misses it, he's got to wait until the right moment comes again." Mulder explained his theory.

"Right moment? Why?"

"Don't ask me, I'm not the psychotic one."

"You should probably look for anyone in the army who exhibited abnormal behavior, especially people who were dismissed from the army around the time of the first murder." Scully suggested.

Roy decided to follow their advice and the agents were taken back to their dorms. He ordered his subordinates to contact other people in the military in order to ask them about anyone who exhibited signs of what could be considered abnormal behavior. Maybe by the next morning they would already have a new lead to follow. Maybe the killer was really in the army and had some obvious mental problem.

Colonel Mustang only got home late that night and definitely needed a rest. That case was taking a lot of his time, but he still had other things to do. He tried to forget about the murders for a while, knowing that work could always keep him up all night if he let it and went to sleep.

_The battlefield was like hell on Earth. Shots were heard from everywhere. People screamed in horror, until their screams were silenced by more shots. He walked __on that bloody ground, looking at the skies. It looked like it was going to rain. He saw his comrades walking away and went after them. They were about 100 meters away from him, but the faster he walked, the further they got. Suddenly, something grabbed his leg, preventing him from going on. He looked back and saw one of the Ishvalians, lying on the ground and holding his ankle. The man had horrible wounds on his face. Actually, half of his head was missing, how could he still be alive?"_

Roy woke up in the middle of the night. His heart was beating fast and he was covered in sweat. It was just another nightmare. He had experienced the real thing before and dreaming about the war always brought up bad memories. Memories that he wanted so bad to forget, but couldn't. He got up, had a glass of water and then went back to bed. Wallowing in those bad memories wouldn't change anything, so he tried to think about something different. Alchemy theories, the time when he was studying alchemy years before, the shy blonde girl he met when he started learning alchemy and the confident and reliable woman that girl had become when she joined the military. Those thoughts helped setting his mind at ease. However, even though he was tired, he couldn't fall asleep again. He tossed and turned during the rest of the night, until it was time to get up and go to work.

Mustang was feeling very sleepy when he got to the headquarters the next day. He sat by his desk with a cup of coffee, dreading the long day he had ahead of him. Soon Lieutenant Hawkeye brought him an envelope that had arrived early that morning.

"Lieutenant Colonel Lewis sent you some information on a soldier who was dismissed in May this year."

"Good, thank you. Bring the agents here."

"Yessir." Riza said immediately, before leaving.

Mulder and Scully were brought to the office by Lieutenant Hawkeye, who went back to her usual place, standing by the Colonel's side as he asked the agents to sit down.

"Any suspects came up?"

"Mark Feldman was dismissed from the army not long before the first murder. He was said to constantly stop whatever he was doing and ignore people around him, like he was unconscious, for up to a minute, many times a day. Seems like it started with a few of these episodes a day and then they got so frequent he could barely get his job done. According to the report, he also became very edgy and irritated."

"But he didn't lose conscious?" Scully asked.

"No."

Colonel Mustang continued to read the report, about how the soldier said he saw bright lights but didn't interrupt what he was doing, although he didn't hear people call him nor remembered what happened.

"So it was like he was absent for a few seconds." Scully tried to summarize it all.

"Yes, that's the exact word the Lieutenant Colonel used in the report. Absent."

"Did he have any other problems? Headaches? Dizziness?"

"Actually, yes…" Roy said, suspecting the agent already knew what was wrong with the guy.

"That's not your man. He probably had what we call absence seizures. That might be due to epilepsy, but considering the other clinical symptoms associated I'd say he's got some other neurological disease, maybe a brain tumor."

Scully sounded so confident about what she had just said that the Colonel just tossed the envelope back on the desk, finding it easy to believe her. He didn't really feel that man was the murderer anyway.

"I've been thinking about the longer gaps in between the cases. I only got the case two weeks ago and some of the murders were really strange." Roy said, leaning backwards on his chair.

"Do you think any murders could have been considered as accidents?" Mulder asked him, interested in the idea.

"It's possible, yes. We are going to examine the files of any deaths during this period of time and see if there's anything that could be related to our case." The Colonel explained.

Roy quickly organized the mess on his desk, then stood up and called Hawkeye and Fallman to help him check the files. Before they left the office, he handed Scully a file.

"Here's the report on Carter's death. I believe you already know most of the information in it.

"Thank you..." Scully said after a couple of seconds, not knowing what to expect next. He seemed to be a little more willing to trust them now.

The three of them left, but Mulder and Scully stayed in the office, watched closely by Lt. Havoc. They opened the file to read and were quiet for a while, lost in their own thoughts.

"I think it's the red hair…" Mulder whispered to Scully, when Lt. Havoc wasn't listening.

"What are you talking about?"

"Your red hair. Men like women with red hair." He said, trying to keep a serious face.

"Don't be ridiculous…" She said, with that dismissive tone of voice she reserved for some of Mulder's jokes.

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**N/A: **Hello guys! New chapter is up! I hope you're enjoying the crime investigation, because it wasn't easy to write. If you have the time, please leave a review. It's very important for me to know your opinions. Thanks in advance and see you in about a week.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer:** I don't own TXF nor FMA... There, I said it… Can I go now?

I want to say thanks to ssadropout and wishfulliving89 for their reviews!

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**Chapter 7**

Scully and Mulder finally got to read the full report on Sergeant Tom Carter's death, but like the Colonel had said, they already knew most of the information in it. However, they didn't know that Carter had been having trouble sleeping. Carter had missed days of work saying his insomnia wouldn't let him do his job properly.

"He could have been threatened, you know." Scully said to Mulder.

"I don't think he got any threats at work…" Mulder dismissed the threat theory again. "But all the victims were worried with something. Insomnia may have been just an excuse to stay home, although he was said to have been very sleepy and nervous for a few days."

"According to the report, next thing he didn't show up for work and then he was killed." Scully said as she read the next page of the file.

"What if the killer enjoys spooking his victims? He likes to freak them out before he kills them…" Mulder came up with a new theory.

It was an interesting idea and it made Mulder feel like a whole new path had been uncovered and was just ready to follow.

"If he spooked his victims and made them stressed out, how would he get them to open the door for him? Wouldn't they be paranoid already?" Lieutenant Havoc asked.

"That's right… We know the killer didn't break in the apartments. He was allowed to come in." Scully said.

"Yeah… The doors were locked, so the killer must have left through the window, or locked the door from outside on his way out. But yes, no locks were busted in any of the apartments." Mulder agreed, as the spark in his eyes just went out. Not that he would give up, though.

As they weren't allowed to go anywhere alone, Mulder and Scully just stayed in the office, staring at the map where Scully had marked information about the crimes. Mulder got a pencil and started scribbling in a piece of paper for no particular purpose, while Scully tried to get some information on the victims from Lt. Havoc. The man had been ordered not talk about the military, so he didn't answer many of Scully's questions, which made her feel very frustrated. She wished she could just shove the FBI badge on the soldier's face and demand answers like she could do back home. Even if she did that now, the FBI meant nothing for those people.

Lunch time came and the other men left the office to grab a bite to eat, but Havoc stayed there just as he was told. Sergeant Fuery brought some sandwiches for the soldier and the two agents later. Mulder ate his in about a minute or two and sat on a chair, staring at the ceiling and trying to think. He got tired of scribbling, so he got a pencil and threw it against the ceiling. The object got stuck up there for a few seconds, before falling back on the desk.

"Mulder, please…" Scully complained, before her partner threw the pencil again, ignoring her request.

"Don't let Lt. Hawkeye see you do that." Havoc said. "She was scolding the Colonel for doing the same thing just last week…"

"She scolded him? I thought he was your boss." Mulder asked, with a curious look.

"He is, but let's just say the Lieutenant is the kind of person even the Colonel wouldn't want to irritate…"

"I could say the same thing about her…" Mulder said, pointing at Scully, who didn't even look back. "She even shot me once."

"You know I had to." Scully said, now looking back at him as she felt guilty about it and didn't really want to bring it up.

"I know, don't worry." Mulder said with a gentle smile on his face.

Havoc and Fuery stared at each other, as thinking why the hell she would need to shoot him. The agents seemed to get along fine. Mulder made some joke about her having a temper, but she didn't answer. Instead, her eyes went from Mulder to the door when they heard steps. The door flew open and Colonel Mustang came in with a serious expression on his face. Fallman and Hawkeye followed him inside, both of them looking as disturbed as their boss. Mustang tossed some documents on his desk, making a loud noise and turned around hastily. Something had to be wrong for him to be so nervous.

"Did you find anything?" Scully asked, even though it was pretty obvious that he was going to say something, whether she asked him or not.

"The situation is worse than we thought. There were no longer gaps in between the deaths." Roy said. "We missed three murders."

"Were they considered as accidents?" Mulder asked.

"One was. The other two were reported as suicides."

"But you think they were murdered." Mulder said, studying the Colonel's reaction and trying to read the thoughts he wouldn't share with them.

"Honestly, I don't see how these people could have been murdered. However, I'm worried that their deaths have something to do with specific moments like you said. Thomas Orion, 35 years old, cut his wrists with a knife in the bathroom in the headquarters. He was acting very strange for days before that happened, so everyone thought he was going mad. Joanne Culver, 27 years old, was waiting for the train when she supposedly lost balance and fell on the tracks. Either that or she jumped in front of the train intentionally. There were lots of witnesses and no one saw anyone near her at the time of the accident. Douglas Raider, 56 years old, shot himself at home. What the hell is going on here?"

Both Scully and Mulder sighed. What the hell was going on? Being FBI agents, they had heard that question from local police officers many times, when they joined crime investigations all over the country. People usually expected federal agents to have answers for everything.

"How many other deaths did you have in the military? Could these deaths be a coincidence?" Scully tried to be rational.

"If we consider suicides and weird deaths involving people who work in this city, none. Other cases we had were solved. With these three other cases, the gaps between deaths are kind of constant." Roy said.

That meant they had about a week before someone else was murdered. The killer had to be smart to manage to kill 11 people without being caught, so that meant there would be more victims for sure, unless they could get him soon.

"I want to know more about these new cases, but there's a strong possibility that these people really killed themselves." Scully said.

"What if they had no choice?" Mulder started to wonder. "Imagine this… There was no way out. They were going to be killed, they were scared… Whatever took those 8 other soldiers' lives was after them. They killed themselves to escape."

Silence took over the office and everyone around just stared at Mulder. Fuery, Breda and Fallman looked kind of scared now and Havoc had a worried look on his face as well. Hawkeye looked like she was thinking if the man had really said what she thought she heard, while Scully looked around not so delighted to see how Mulder's theories could disturb people everywhere. He really had gotten his nickname 'Spooky Mulder' for a reason.

"Escape from what?" The Colonel asked in an annoyed voice. "Talk straight."

"The murderer."

"Do you think more people are involved in this? That's why they can't escape?" Roy asked again, trying hard to understand what Mulder wanted to say.

"I don't think that it's the job of some organization. I'm not even sure we are looking for a person anymore."

Riza wondered if Mulder was talking about the aliens he had mentioned before, while they were at the crime scenes. Mulder had told her lots of things about the extraterrestrial beings that supposedly abducted people for experiments or God knows what. Despite paying attention to his stories, she didn't believe aliens were likely to exist, let alone come in spaceships and abduct people. Right now, she just wished Mulder didn't share his crazy alien stories with the Colonel. Roy would have him locked up in a nuthouse if he heard that.

"I don't know what share of weirdness you've had, Mr. Mulder, but I assure you what we're looking for is human."

"What about these homunculi your subordinate mentioned the other day?"

"They don't have anything to do with it and we'll not talk about them."

Lieutenant Hawkeye thought that if they did tell the agents about the homunculi, they'd be the ones to think they were crazy.

"All right, so what's next?" Mulder asked, knowing that arguing wouldn't help.

"We're going to talk to people who worked with these three victims. If you have any questions for them tell us."

"We'll write some for you." Mulder said, yanking a sheet of paper from his notebook.

The Colonel sat on his chair still thinking about whom he was going to question and writing down their names as he found them on the reports. Soon Mulder came and handed him the questions he and Scully had come up with.

"Victims exhibited any abnormal or paranoid behavior? All right…" Roy started to read the questions. "Victims professed to any religion? Right… Any medical conditions… Ever mentioned being part of a cult… Whatever… Ever mentioned being abducted by strange creatures? What kind of question is that?"

"Extraterrestrial beings." Mulder said like it was the most common thing in the world.

Lieutenant Hawkeye looked at agent Scully, only to see she seemed annoyed, like she had heard Mulder's alien stories too many times already.

"Agent Mulder believes in extraterrestrial life and alien abductions." Scully explained to the Colonel.

"Seems like you don't." Roy said.

"No, I don't." She agreed.

The Colonel didn't even bother to express his own opinion about the topic. If Mulder wanted to believe in something so stupid, that was his problem. Roy read the rest of the questions and stood up. He left with lieutenant Hawkeye as usual, in order to interrogate people who worked with the victims. Mulder and Scully didn't have much to do for the rest of the day so it was decided that they'd be told about any new findings the next day and they were taken back to their dorms.

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**N/A:** Hey guys! I'm posting on time tonight! I'm so freaking tired that I dozed off for a few seconds and almost drooled on my keyboard… But I'm posting as promised. And since I'm doing this for you guys, please leave me reviews, okay? I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll see you next week, probably on Friday again.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: **Don't own anything… feel like banging head against keyboard…

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There there… feeling better now.

I want to say thanks to kathy lee skyler and ssadropout for their reviews!

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**Chapter 8**

Roy got back to his home late at night again, but his mind still wouldn't calm down. After talking to the coworkers of the two soldiers who had committed suicide and the one who fell on the train tracks, he now knew those deaths were related. Their stories were too similar to be just a coincidence. The most concerning detail was that something had actually made two, maybe three soldiers with great careers give up on everything and commit suicide, instead of asking someone for help. Roy went to bed, but it took him some time to finally stop thinking about all that and fall asleep, even though he was tired.

_Blood covered the ground of the battlefield. Ishvalian blood. Amestrian blood. He went on with his task, burning people to death. He tried not to, but he could feel the pain. He could see the fear and suffering in the eyes of those he killed, even if for just a mere second__, before the fire erased their faces, their lives, their dreams. People around him started to go away slowly, but more blood stained the ground, streaming down the rocks like water. He looked around for wounded people, but found out that he was alone. Who could bleed like that? There was far too much blood… He took a few steps to a puddle of water, where he saw his own reflection. His face. Covered in blood._

"Damn…" He cursed, sitting up on his bed. He had had a nightmare for the second night in a row. It wasn't uncommon for him to have those bad dreams, but that one had felt so real…

"_When is the war going to leave me?__" _He thought, resting his head on his pillow again_. "Or is it going to haunt me for the rest of my life?"_

Roy just turned around and closed his eyes once more, but he couldn't sleep. He looked at his alarm clock only to see he had managed to sleep about two hours. He stared at the white ceiling above his head, thinking how he sometimes dreaded the loneliness of these late night hours. Just like the night before, he wasn't able to sleep anymore.

There would be a lot of work to be done at the office and more people to talk to about the cases, so he took a shower, got dressed and had more coffee than usual before heading for work that morning. The Colonel arrived late, but nobody seemed to care. He wasn't very punctual anyway, so they didn't find it strange.

Breda knocked on the FBI agents' doors at about 9 o'clock in the morning. The two agents showed up, looking a lot more rested than the soldiers, since their participation in the case was limited. Both Mulder and Scully were eager to get their hands on new information so they could do something, but when they were walking towards the Colonel's office, they met Sergeant Fuery, who was gesticulating nervously for them to go back.

"What is it?" Breda asked.

"Brigadier General Kanek just came. He brought some paperwork that needs to be done before 5 o'clock in the afternoon." Fuery said, adjusting the glasses that kept sliding down his face.

"Is it a lot?"

"Way too much. The Colonel said we won't be able to work in the investigation for now." He answered in a low voice, adjusting the glasses again.

"More people are going to die if we don't get this guy." Mulder said, feeling frustrated and tired of waiting for other people to decide what they were going to do and when.

"He wants to talk to you as soon as we finish the paperwork. He got some information yesterday." The sergeant said, looking up to face Mulder, who was about 30 centimeters taller than him.

Having no choice but to go back and wait, Mulder and Scully returned to their dorms and stayed there until almost 6 o'clock, when Lt. Hawkeye knocked on their doors. Both agents thought the soldiers had had a though day, because they looked awfully tired when they got to the office, especially Col. Mustang.

"Sit down." He ordered, the moment they entered the room.

Mustang definitely didn't seem to be in a good mood. He was tired after working for so long on boring paperwork and also nervous about the case they couldn't solve. And like he didn't have enough problems already, he had a bad headache that made him start thinking about scheduling an appointment with an ophthalmologist.

"We talked to some of the victims' coworkers yesterday. Thomas Orion, the one who cut his wrists in the bathroom here in the headquarters started to behave differently about a week before he died. First he complained of headaches, nausea and dizziness, then a couple days later he freaked out in the office. Apparently he grabbed a chair and threw it against another soldier, Anthony Rogers." Roy explained, holding the reports.

"Did they argue about something?" Scully asked.

The Colonel laid down the files on his desk and turned on his chair to look at her. He liked agent Scully's straight way of thinking.

"According to what they told me, no. Three people witnessed this incident. According to all of them, Orion didn't even talk to Rogers before attacking him and later denied everything. He killed himself less than 48 hours after that."

"What about the other two?"

"Joanne Culver, the woman who fell on the train tracks… She was said to be very nervous and suffer from memory lapses. She was given a few days off because she couldn't focus on her work. She complained of headaches and hand tremors. Douglas Raider complained that his nightmares were haunting him, whatever that means… His coworkers said he was going crazy and kept saying the people he killed in the war were after him."

"Do you believe in that?" Mulder asked.

Mulder seemed to have a tendency to be interested in anything weird or simply unusual, as Col. Mustang was now beginning to notice.

"Have you ever fought in a war, Mr. Mulder?" Roy asked, looking seriously at him, trying to study the man. That guy could be a very good investigator and know a lot about criminal profiles as he himself had said, but he didn't seem to have any battlefield experience at all.

"No sir, I haven't." Mulder admitted.

"You kill so many people you lose count. Not everyone can deal with that." Roy said, thinking of the nightmares he had. Maybe he couldn't deal with it so well either.

"These people all showed symptoms of severe stress." Scully said, trying to get the men to focus on the real problem there. "Did the other 8 victims show similar symptoms?"

"Yes, all of them." The Colonel answered.

"Maybe they weren't threatened directly." Scully said. "There are other ways to scare people. They could have been drugged."

"How?"

"We should check water, food, everything. Maybe the killer chose people who lived alone to poison them without hurting other people and raising suspicion." Scully started to wonder.

Agent Scully, being skeptical as she was, could find a plausible scientific explanation for most cases. The problem was that many times cases they investigated in the X-Files turned out to be really related to paranormal phenomena ordinary science could not explain.

"That's possible. First let's make sure the people who moved into the places where the victims died didn't experience any symptoms." The Colonel said.

It was much easier to respect a serious woman like agent Scully, who recurred to science to explain things than to respect someone like Mulder, who tended to come up with theories that not only challenged science, but sometimes also mocked it.

Roy then ordered his men to go to the different apartments and houses and also left, taking Mulder and Scully with him. The three of them went to a house near the headquarters, where Douglas Raider used to live.

"Sorry to bother you so late at night, madam." He said politely when a young lady opened the door.

"Is it about that poor man who shot himself again?" The woman asked.

"Yes. May we come in?"

"Of course… Can I get you a cup of tea?"

"No, thank you. It won't take long. We just have some questions for you."

"Okay."

Roy didn't want to worry the woman. He didn't like the idea of questioning her because it would sure disturb her more. He tried to think of a way of asking, but words just escaped his mind. If he weren't that tired, it would be much easier.

"Hm, Doctor Scully, will you?" Mustang asked the red-headed woman, trying to hide his embarrassment.

She was quiet for a moment, quite surprised that he wanted her to do the talking, but finally took a couple of steps forward and took control of the situation the way she was used to.

"We have reasons to suspect that man was exposed to some environmental toxin before he died. Have you experienced any symptoms such as nausea… headaches… hand tremors?"

"Do you think he was poisoned? Is that why he died?" The young woman asked her, looking very worried now.

"We think he may have suffered from chronic exposure to something, leading to depression." Agent Scully said confidently.

"Well, I didn't have any problems... My husband said he feels… uh… pain when he goes to the bathroom… Would that have anything to do with…"

"No. He probably has a urinary infection. Tell him to see a doctor."

"Okay… Uh… I'm not sure if it matters…" The woman started to say, looking at Scully then at the others. "…but the neighbor downstairs told me the man who killed himself was very noisy… I think he started yelling even when he was alone."

"Thank you. We'll talk to him." The Colonel said.

Scully took a few more minutes to talk to the woman and calm her down. Once the young wife was convinced that her life wasn't in danger, they left straight to the apartment downstairs. A bearded man opened the door complaining about how late it was, but Roy didn't care and asked him about Raider. The three of them just stayed at the hall while the guy didn't move from the doorway as he talked.

"Nutjob, that one. Started screaming in the middle of the night like someone was trying to kill him."

"Could you understand what he said?" Mulder asked.

"Barely. Once I think he said something like 'go away' or 'leave me alone'. I'm telling you, he was nuts. Shot himself right on the head."

"How long ago was this?" Roy asked before Mulder could.

"Started no more than 3 or 4 days before he died."

"Did you notice anything else that you considered unusual?"

"He stormed out of the apartment once, running like mad. Went away for 'bout 5 or 6 hours then came back, drunk as a skunk. I remember that was on a Tuesday. Thursday he blew up his brains. He told me that day he couldn't get away from it."

"It what?" Mulder asked.

"The alcohol I suppose. Stupid drunk… Anything else?"

"I believe that's all. We'll come back if we have anything else to ask." Colonel Mustang said, before the man closed the door at them without saying another word.

"I don't think Raider was running from his booze…" Mulder said.

"His what?" Roy asked.

"The alcohol. Did any of the victims go to the doctor before they died?"

"Because of the symptoms they showed? Some did. We can get their medical files tomorrow if you want to see them, but there's not much to know." Roy answered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

They got in the car to go back to the headquarters. Mulder and Scully sat in the back seat while the Colonel drove through the almost empty streets. Mulder just watched from the window the bars and restaurants that were open. Everything was so different from their time. There were some people on the street, but not many cars and you would see no buses, no subway stations, nothing.

"Lucky you don't even know what a traffic jam is…" Mulder said.

"Look out!" Scully suddenly yelled.

Roy pushed the brake and the car halted violently. Another car just crossed in front of them.

"Damn…" Colonel Mustang mumbled, shaking his head.

"Are you all right?" Scully asked.

"I'm fine. I was thinking about the case and didn't see the car coming."

"You dozed off." Scully said.

"No, I didn't." Roy said in a very irritated voice.

Scully didn't insist and they were all quiet until they got to the headquarters, where Riza was waiting to take the agents to their dorms. Mulder went in his dorm and closed the door. Lt. Hawkeye turned around and saw Scully, still standing at the doorway of her dorm.

"The Colonel almost crashed the car just now."

"Really?" Riza asked, kind of surprised.

"He dozed off."

"That's not like him."

"He said he didn't, but he did. Perhaps someone should drive him home."

"Thank you, I'll do that." Lt. Hawkeye said, before Scully went in and a guard came to watch the doors.

Riza went back to the office and found her boss gathering the files and locking them in a drawer in his desk. He asked about new information, but she didn't have any. None of the people she or the guys had questioned had experienced any relevant symptoms. Roy told her about what they had found out, leaving out the part when he almost caused a car accident. Riza decided not to mention it.

"I'll give you a ride home." She said.

"Don't worry, just go home. You must be tired."

"I'm fine. I'll drive you." Riza insisted.

"They told you…" Roy said, with an annoyed expression on his face.

"They did. Please, let me take you home."

"Fine…"

Roy wasn't in the mood to argue about it, so he just got in the car and Lieutenant Hawkeye drove to his building, stopping right at the entrance.

"Thanks for the ride… See you tomorrow…" Roy said, before yawning noisily and getting off the car. He walked to the door steps of the building and turned around, watching the car go down the street. _"I'm lucky to have someone like her…"_ He smiled at the thought that someone really cared for him.

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**N/A: **New chapter on time… No night shifts today, thanks God. Sunday I'm gonna work an 18-hour-shift. Hope it won't be too crazy, last Sunday shift was insane. If I get too stressed out, I'll change stuff for the next chapter and blow up stuff (or people) in my story. It usually makes me feel better. Well, reviews help too, so if you have the time, please leave one. I appreciate it. Hehehehe!


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: **Don't own The X Files nor FMA.

N/A: I've been thinking that considering how Arakawa has been screwing up with the FMA characters, she must have had a little chat with Chris Carter... Maybe he thaught her how to screw up with the poor characters... I'm starting to think that the human sacrifices have actually been abducted and Father is an alien. Hope no one will be taken by a spaceship or get cancer induced by a metal implant...

I want to say thanks to Hina Kita for reviewing in the last chapter!

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**Chapter 9**

It was late at night when Roy got home and he wasn't very hungry, so he went straight to bed. Despite being so tired, he couldn't get a wink of sleep. After spending about an hour just rolling on his bed, he got up and started to walk in the dark, from one side of his bedroom to the other, feeling very uneasy. What the hell was going on? He was so tired he couldn't even think straight, but he couldn't sleep at all. On top of that, he was nervous about something and he didn't know what.

"_Maybe a hot shower will help…"_ He thought.

He took off his clothes, tossed them on his bed and headed for the bathroom. He squinted for a second after hitting the light switch, but soon he got used to the brightness. Roy looked at the mirror on the wall to see how bad he looked, but he didn't see his reflection only. A dark shadow behind him appeared on the transparent surface, making him turn around quickly to see who was there. Colonel Mustang only saw the opposite wall. He looked all around and nobody was there with him. He stared at mirror again, very confused, and saw nothing but his own reflection. And damn it, he looked terrible.

A shower used to help the Colonel relax and he did expect to be able to sleep when he went back to bed. However, that time it just didn't work. He closed his eyes and tried not to think of anything at all, but felt as though someone was watching him. He was tired and for a moment he actually thought that something might get him if he fell asleep. Reason took control over his mind again. There wasn't anyone there, he was alone. There was no danger. He was at home. Those thoughts were the kind that occurs to people when they are almost asleep. They are more like dreams and have little connection with reality. He sighed and felt that reasonless fear slowly dissipate. Everything was quiet and peaceful. The wind was blowing through the open window, making a soothing sound. Apart from that it was all silent.

_Hodi__… …yet tee … tvo… hurrish…_

"Who's there?" Roy asked, sitting up on his bed and looking around, looking for the source of that noise.

Stupid question. There was no one there. It was probably the wind. It just sounded so real… like words… Mustang couldn't resist looking through the window. There were some people chatting on the other side of the street, just across from his apartment. He could hear them talking, so they were probably the ones he had heard before. Roy lay on his bed again, repeating to himself that he was alone. Probably all the weird details about the murder cases were stressing him out. Everything would sure be back to normal once they solved the case. He closed his eyes, determined not to open them again till morning no matter what he heard.

Fortunately, the rest of the night was silent and peaceful. Even so, he didn't sleep. He rested with his eyes closed, but couldn't fall asleep. When the first beams of sunlight entered through the window Roy jumped out of the bed, got ready and left for work. That day, probably for the first time in months, he was the first one to arrive at the office. About half an hour later Warrant Officer Fallman arrived as well. The man got his keys to open the door and enter the office, but noticed it was already open.

"You're early today, sir." He said when he saw his boss sitting on his chair, with the reports on his hand.

Fallman wanted to ask if something was wrong, but for some reason he felt it would be better not to do so. The Colonel was quite irritated the day before and he didn't think he would be much better that morning. The third person to arrive in the office was Lieutenant Hawkeye and she was also surprised to see Roy was already there. The Colonel was no early bird and had been very sleepy the night before. Since Riza would rather not talk about this in front of other people, she waited until Fallman left the office to get something and then put her work aside to talk to Roy.

"Sir, you were very tired yesterday. Why did you arrive so early?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Is there something bothering you?" She asked, a little concerned.

"I don't know. It must be this case they gave me. They really wanted to screw me up…" Mustang said, resting his forehead on a pile of paper on his desk for a few seconds.

"We'll solve it. Mr. Mulder and Ms. Scully have been helping us a lot."

"Yes, they have…" He mumbled.

Colonel Mustang didn't want to admit but he had depended on them a lot more than he would like to, especially agent Scully. If only he hadn't been so tired lately, he would be able to get things done on his own, without having to ask other people's help for simple things like questioning civilians.

"Can I make you some coffee?" Riza offered, as she didn't know what else to do.

"Yes, thank you."

She went to prepare some coffee for him, thinking that even though he didn't look good at all, some coffee might help. Maybe all he needed was a little more energy to get his work done. However, she didn't think he had trouble sleeping very often. The case had to be stressing him a lot. If only they could find more leads to follow…

Lieutenant Hawkeye came back to the office a few minutes later with a white cup full of coffee for her boss and found him rubbing his eyes and yawning. She was used to see him doing that, but even in the cold winter mornings when they had to wake up early he didn't seem so tired and sleepy like he did now.

"Are you sure you're all right to work, sir?"

"I'm fine." He insisted. "Thanks for the coffee."

He drank half of it at once and placed the cup on the desk, saying that the Lieutenant made the best coffee in the world. She smiled gently at him and went back to her desk. Soon all the others arrived and everyone continued working quietly. They were waiting for the medical files of the victims and these were delivered to the office by the army doctor at about 10:30 in the morning. Roy read them all again, but just like he remembered, there wasn't much. Only two of the 11 victims had gone to a doctor close to the day of their deaths.

"Bring the agents in." Colonel Mustang finally ordered and Lieutenant Havoc went to get them.

Mulder and Scully came in and stood in front of the Colonel's desk. Apparently he had forgotten to ask them to sit down. He started talking about the medical files he had gotten and the agents were just standing there until Lt. Hawkeye showed them a couple of chairs.

"So basically no one had anything different?" Mulder asked.

"Headaches, fatigue and aching muscles… That's all they complained about. We'll talk to their doctors because I didn't talk to them before, but we won't get anything new I suppose. Anyway, we're running out of options. We'll go as soon as I'm done with this paperwork they dumped on my desk…" Col. Mustang complained, staring at the pile of documents like it was some unidentifiable animal carcass on the road. "Or maybe… Lieutenant Hawkeye."

"Yes?" Riza answered automatically.

"You can go and talk to the doctors."

"Agent Scully is a medical doctor, she should go with her." Mulder suggested.

"She's not in the army. Her presence there will raise questions."

"Our participation in the investigation is off record…"

"Yes. Perhaps you'd rather stay in your cell." Roy said in a challenging voice.

"No, not at all, sir." Mulder said, raising his hands in the air, like he didn't mean to irritate him. "Would it be possible for us to take another look at the most recent crime scene?"

"Lt. Havoc will take you."

Havoc couldn't be happier to get away from the boring office work, even if it meant driving those two weird agents around. He said he would get a car and told some low-rank soldier who was passing by to watch them for a second. Mulder and Scully stood at the entrance of the headquarters, while people in blue military uniforms walked in and out, ignoring them completely.

A short old man wearing civilian clothes was sitting on the stairs, looking at the bystanders. Mulder watched the man with curiosity. He seemed to be agitated and making an effort to remain unnoticed. Scully was talking to Mulder, but he was barely paying attention to his partner. The old man sitting on the stairs kept looking back at them every few seconds, clearly trying to listen to their conversation.

"Excuse me, sir." Mulder called him.

"Hum?" The man mumbled, turning a little bit to face him, as the color disappeared from his face.

"Do I know you?"

"Ahn, n-no… I don't kn- I don't think you k-know me." The man said to Mulder very nervously, before standing up and walking away.

Havoc's voice brought the agent back to reality and he and Scully got in the car to go and see the crime scene again.

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**N/A2: **Hey there! Not much in this chapter, I know... But just wait! Next Friday, new chapter. Unless I get some unexpected night shift. (Which I hope not...) Anyway, I'd appreciatte some more reviews! Thanks for reading and see you in a week!


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing… damn it…

I want to say thanks to ssadropout, Hina Kita and mebh for reviewing in the last chapter.

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**Chapter 10**

Havoc took Mulder and Scully to Sergeant Carter's apartment again, as Mulder had requested. Scully didn't know why exactly her partner wanted to see the crime scene once more, but figured he might have had some new idea or maybe new questions to be answered. Or maybe it was just Mulder being Mulder…

"What is it that you're looking for?" Scully asked him.

"I don't know, yet."

Scully wasn't surprised. Looking for answers without having the slightest idea of what those might be was very common for both of them, considering the kinds of cases they usually had to investigate. Mulder started to go through all of Carter's stuff again, looking for anything unusual. Everything still remained in place because the sergeant didn't have any family to claim his belongings.

"Is he always like this?" Havoc asked Scully.

"Yes…" She said.

"Huh."

"But he's a very competent agent." She added, before starting to look at the stuff that Mulder hadn't looked at yet. She had to consider that this wasn't the time she lived in, nor the country she came from. She went on examining Carter's belongings, trying to think like someone from the early 1900s.

Documents, clothes, books… There wasn't anything there that you wouldn't expect to find. Scully moved away from the nightstand and saw Mulder ripping off the wallpaper. She was going to complain about it, but then saw Havoc just watching him without saying a word, like he found it entertaining. She changed her mind about saying anything and pretended she understood Mulder's reasons to destroy private property, even though she didn't have the slightest idea of why he was doing that. Maybe if she did so, Second Lieutenant Havoc would be less likely to tell the Colonel that Mulder was insane and therefore not trustworthy. The blonde soldier didn't seem to take Mulder very seriously.

"Anything?" Havoc asked after Mulder gave up on his wallpaper assault.

"Termites…"

Not happy yet, Mulder began to move the furniture from the wall, making the mess worse. He wasn't very careful in doing so, scratching the floor as he pushed the heavy pieces of furniture. Scully knew that no one would complain about it, but it bothered her to see that the Lieutenant by their side was finding it all very funny.

"A little help, if you don't mind…" Mulder said to Havoc, while holding one end of the bed that was still covered with a blue blanket. "I want to turn this upside down."

"All right…" Havoc said, laughing, even though he had no idea why he wanted to do that.

"Mulder, I honestly don't think you're going to find anything by trashing Carter's apartment…" Scully confessed with a sigh.

However, Mulder just smirked, looking at wooden bed frame. She immediately recognized that look on his face. He had it every time he found evidence. Not any kind of evidence, but what he considered interesting evidence, associated with paranormal phenomena.

"What is it?" She asked, now turning to the upside-down bed to see what he had found.

A small symbol was drawn on the wooden bed frame with black ink. It was round and about the size of a plum. Seemed like someone had drawn it a few days ago.

"It kind of resembles the symbols we found on the basement we were brought to." Mulder said, gently stroking the dry ink.

"What do you think this is?" Havoc asked, now feeling a bit disturbed.

The Lieutenant's smile had just been erased from his face, as he now knew that they had found something that might be relevant.

"I don't know… But I believe it's related to the symbols from the basement." Mulder answered.

"How?"

"I think that those symbols in the basement were used to bring agent Scully and me to this time and this symbol was used to bring someone… or something, here."

"To kill Sergeant Carter…" Havoc said.

Lieutenant Havoc stared at the symbol, now feeling a bit scared. He didn't like Mulder's theory at all. It implied that something supernatural was going on and he wasn't a big fan of anything like that.

"This bed frame could be handmade. Isn't it more likely that this symbol is the craftsman signature? It's not the same symbol, not even the same color of the symbols on the basement. Besides, we have no evidence that the symbols are connected to our coming here." Scully said.

Havoc wanted to believe agent Scully. Her explanation was a lot more reasonable, but at the moment, he was having a hard time to convince himself that all that was going on had a plain scientific explanation.

"If we go to the other victims' places, we can check for similar symbols." The soldier suggested, although he really wished they wouldn't find more of those symbols. He did want to solve the case, but he didn't want it to be anything related to monsters, magic, or whatever the FBI agent could be thinking of.

Mulder and Scully both knew that checking the other places would be the best thing to do now. If they found other symbols, then it meant there was a connection between them and the crimes. If no symbols were found in the other crime scenes, that one was more likely a coincidence.

"Some of the crime scenes still contain the old furniture, right?"

"I think the furniture remained untouched in two more places that are still empty."

They went back to the car in a bit of a hurry and Havoc put the key in the ignition.

"Is it true that smoking can give you cancer?" He asked, holding a pack of cigarettes.

"Yes, it increases your chances a lot." Scully said.

"Damn…" The man said, before putting the pack of smokes back in his pocket and turning on the ignition. "I really needed a cigarette…"

Johen Hewitt's apartment was about 10 minutes from there by car, but it felt like a long way since each of the three people in that car was eager to know if those symbols meant anything. It could be the missing lead that would help them solve the case or just one more useless detail that had nothing to do with it at all. Havoc finally parked the car on the street and got off the vehicle. He went to open the door for the agents, but Mulder opened it himself and they got off.

"How did Hewitt die, again?" Mulder asked.

"Strangled with electric wire in his kitchen." Lt. Havoc remembered.

Havoc had been to the crime scene on the day they found the man.

"Poor old bastard…"

"Did you know him?" Scully asked.

"Yeah, he was quite well known. They said he was going to be promoted, but he died before that happened."

The Lieutenant unlocked the door of the apartment in the second floor and they entered. The place was covered in a thin layer of dust and apparently some things had been taken away. There were no curtains to hide the dirty windows, but there was still an old couch in the living room. There were marks on the floor, where a small table used to be and some more marks suggested the man who lived there wasn't very careful when pushing the chairs to sit down. The wooden floor was all scratched.

"His family came and took most of the stuff, but left some pieces of furniture." Havoc explained.

They went straight to Hewitt's bedroom and found his bed, with no mattress. Luckily, the bed frame was still there, so Mulder and Havoc didn't waste any time. They turned the bed upside down to look and there it was, the same symbol, drawn in black paint.

"Bingo." Mulder said, looking at the drawing on the wood. "It's the same symbol. Seems like it's fading away."

"Damn it." Havoc complained.

"Many cultures summon demons or monsters to do things for them. Maybe someone summoned something to kill those people."

The Second Lieutenant really didn't want to hear that. Havoc noticed Mulder seemed very convinced of that theory, so he looked at Scully, already anticipating disagreement.

"Ok, so let's say these creatures exist and can be controlled to attack people. Why is that nobody has ever found any solid evidence of their existence? So many people tried to find them and no one was ever successful."

"If nobody has ever found any evidence of their existence, it's only because there are people who don't wish to uncover the truth." Mulder said.

Scully sighed, knowing that anything she said now wouldn't make a difference. After all, they both knew how evidence could be easily destroyed and the truth could be hidden from the public, no matter at what costs. The three of them decided to go to the one other place that according to Havoc still contained the original furniture and then headed back to the headquarters.

"Some kind of monster killed them?" Roy asked, his head resting on his hands while he stared at Mulder kind of in the same way Scully did when the man said something that went against the laws of science, but letting a lot more annoyance and a lot less respect show.

"That's a possibility." Mulder said with his confidence unaffected. "We found the symbols in the three crime scenes we looked."

He wouldn't have solved many of the cases they had gotten in the past if he had stopped at the first time someone said he was out of his mind.

"They were all scared to death of something. If they were being threatened by some inhuman creature, who could they have asked for help? Who would believe them?" Mulder continued.

"I think we should focus on human suspects, Mr. Mulder, not lose our time in a wild goose chase." Roy said.

"We all know mistakes have consequences, so tell me, Colonel Mustang. Which one has the worse potential consequences? Believing in something that does not exist? Or ignoring the existence of something that does exist? Years ago doctors didn't know about bacteria, so they didn't wash their hands before attending to women in childbirth."

"You do have an answer for everything…" The Colonel said.

Arguing with Mulder about the existence of these creatures was a waste of time, so Roy turned to Lieutenant Hawkeye and asked her to let the FBI agents know what she had found out.

"Both doctors remembered having taken care of the victims before they died. Elias Lockheed was said to be very jumpy and almost hysterical, although that wasn't included in the medical file. He didn't say why, just said he felt very tired. The other victim, Alice Franklin was also very nervous and wouldn't say why. She asked for some medicine and the doctor said he couldn't give her any because he didn't know what was wrong with her. She left his office without allowing him to examine her."

"So far the only solid lead we have is the symbol you found. It's too much of a coincidence." Roy said. "Someone might have a religious motive to kill soldiers. Wouldn't be the first time… We'll go to the library and look for any records of these symbols. Maybe we can find out what they mean."

His subordinates stood up from their chairs and followed him to the library. Only Breda stayed behind to take Mulder and Scully to their dorms, since the Colonel didn't want them around any documents or even some books that could be found in the library.

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**N/A: **Hello guys! Chapter 10 is one day early! I got an unexpected shift for Friday, along with my already planned Saturday shift. And I'm travelling on Sunday, so I thought it'd be better to post one day early than 4 days late. If the 2 night shifts in a row don't kill me, I'll post another chapter next Friday. See you then! Oh, be so kind and leave a review if you have the time.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer:** I don't own FMA or TXF. I was thinking about my theory… That one about Arakawa having met Chris Carter… Well, maybe not. There'd be some differences if she had, so I listed some in the end of the chapter. Feel free to add some, too.

I want to say thanks to ssadropout, Rishqva, Hina Kita and Toushirou-chan for reviewing in the last chapter.

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**Chapter 11**

Tens of thousands of books were kept in the library of the Central headquarters. Years of knowledge and history all stored in the endless dusty wooden bookcases.

A young lad with blue eyes and light brown curly hair that made him look even younger was searching for something among some of the oldest books they had there. He was eager to help the soldiers who had just arrived, since being so young and having that kind of job meant he hardly ever got the chance to talk to any important people in the army.

"Here… This book is about religion. I also have some research on foreign symbols used for communication. Would that also interest you, sir?" He asked, feeling happy to be finally useful.

"Yes, we'd like to see it." Colonel Mustang said, opening the book in a random page.

The boy turned around and Roy let out a yawn. That was going to be a long afternoon. Behind him, Riza was taking a look at some other book, while Havoc carried a pile of old books and the others just searched the old bookcases for anything else on religion and symbols. They quit looking for more stuff and followed the librarian. The lad walked fast to the other side of the library and then turned right and entered another aisle. Roy followed him and turned right into the same aisle.

There was the lad, fingering the leather covers of some very shabby books. Just by his side, a dark figure stood. The figure of a tall, heavy-built man, wearing worn-out clothes that resembled some sort of military uniform from another country, covered in dirt. His originally white shirt was all torn and stained with blood. His ear-length dark brown hair was greasy and his eyes, pitch black.

Roy halted immediately and dropped the book he was caring. The figure inclined his head to the side a little and smiled lightly in an eerie way, showing his yellow teeth. It was like he exhaled evil itself. The smell of blood filled the air, making Roy feel sick. What was that man doing there? The librarian noticed the Colonel's expression, then looked behind nervously. He apparently didn't see anyone, even though the bloody man was standing right there. When the lad stepped away from the bookcase to ask what was going on, the figure just vanished into thin air.

"Is there something wrong?" The boy asked.

He heard the words, but it took Roy a few moments to recognize them and understand that he had been asked a question.

"No, nothing." He said, looking around for the figure, still feeling very confused.

The boy mumbled an 'okay' and walked away, like he had met a drunk on the street and wanted to avoid an awkward conversation.

"What happened?" Riza asked and picked up the book Roy had dropped once the librarian was too far to hear them.

"The book slipped."

He was obviously lying.

"You were looking at something." Hawkeye insisted.

"No, I was… thinking." He answered, doing his best to sound calm.

He walked absentmindedly towards the tables and stumbled on a chair, making a lot of noise and drawing everybody else's attention. His subordinates watched worriedly as he muttered some swear words under his breath, sat down and grabbed a book.

"Stop worrying about me and do your damn job." Roy said in a disturbed tone of voice that wasn't typical of him.

Typical or not, he was their boss, so they obeyed. It was late at night when they left the library, tired and empty-handed. The research had been unrewarding. There wasn't a single thing in that library about the symbols from the bed frames, nor the ones in the basement of the old house. The only thing they could assume was that they were something from ancient times, otherwise it would probably be documented somewhere. Roy yawned and kept walking down the corridors towards his office. He couldn't help but notice that even though he wasn't in a hurry, the others were letting him walk ahead of them. He heard Breda's low voice and someone whispering, probably Sergeant Fuery. Fallman said something as well and despite the low voice, his words were easy to understand.

"He can't drive like that."

"Leave it to me, I'll take him home." Roy heard Lieutenant Hawkeye's voice.

The Colonel didn't bother to stop walking or turn around to face his men.

"And why is that you don't want me to drive?" He simply asked.

The others were in mute embarrassment, but Riza wouldn't be easily intimidated.

"You're in no condition to drive, sir." She answered.

"I'm tired, that's all."

"You dozed off about 3 or 4 times in the library."

"Did I?" This time he halted and turned around to face his first Lieutenant, without hiding his surprise.

"We saw you."

"I don't remember." Roy admitted.

That was odd. He couldn't get a wink of sleep at night, but he had fallen asleep in the library?

"Let me drive you, sir." Lt. Hawkeye insisted.

"All right, if that will make you happy, that's fine with me." He finally agreed, although still in a bad mood.

Everyone got their things in the office and left. Roy sat on the brown leather passenger seat of the car, hoping that Riza wouldn't ask any questions about his weird behavior. She was quiet all the way to his building, but when they got there, she parked the car and turned to look in his eyes. Usually, when she gave him a ride home, she would just stop for a moment, without turning off the engine, and wait until he got off.

"Have you been sleeping well, sir?"

"Not really." He knew he wouldn't be able to escape her inquisitive insistence. "I've been feeling nervous lately and that keeps me awake." He continued.

"Why are you nervous?"

"This case, I suppose... I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall."

"That's not like you."

"I don't know, Lieutenant. Maybe I'm getting old…" He said, with a tired laugh.

Although he laughed, he knew there was something deeply wrong. He had seen someone who didn't exist. Maybe hallucinations could be caused by lack of sleep or maybe he was going crazy. There could be some history of mental disease in his family, but he didn't know much about them. Whatever was wrong, he just didn't want to admit it, he wanted to pretend everything was all right and maybe it would be if he ignored it long enough. Whatever he did, Roy just knew he wouldn't be able to stand the look on Lt. Hawkeye's eyes if she thought he was going insane. It would be better to wait than to do something he might regret later.

"I'm here if you need to talk." Riza added.

Roy stared at his own hands. How could he possibly tell her what was going on if even he himself didn't know what that was?

"Don't worry about me. I'm just tired. Well, thanks for the ride, but I have to go. I still want to make some dinner for myself and there's hardly any food in my kitchen."

There wasn't much more she could do, so the Lieutenant just said good night and Roy got off the car. Perhaps he would be better the next day, she thought, turning on the ignition again and leaving. Anyway, she still wasn't convinced that Roy would be all right, so she decided she would give him a call the next morning before he left for work.

"You didn't have to call me…" was the first thing he said when he picked up the phone, early in the morning.

"Did you sleep well?" Riza asked, ignoring his complaint.

"Yes, a little bit." Roy lied.

He hadn't slept at all again. He had spent half the night rolling on his bed and the other half staring at the walls of his living room, as the headache he had made the idea of simply reading a book sound very unpleasant.

"I got ready a little too early today, so if you want I can give you a ride to work." Riza said, trying to sound friendly, but not concerned.

Roy just rubbed his forehead with one hand while he held the phone with the other. That hell of a headache wouldn't go away.

"Yeah, it sounds good… If it's okay with you…" He said, afraid that he might be in no condition to drive and feeling too tired to walk to work.

He hung up, took a quick shower and went to the kitchen to eat something. Soon he heard a knock on the door. The Lieutenant was already there and he hadn't even finished eating. Maybe he could invite her in to have a cup of coffee, even though she probably wouldn't accept it. She was always so damn professional.

Hawkeye really wished he looked better that morning than he sounded on the phone. A few seconds after knocking she heard the door being unlocked and Roy opened it. She was going to say good morning, but before any words could come from her mouth the man saw something in the corridor and yelled.

"Damn it!"

Roy grabbed her arm and pulled the Lieutenant inside, almost making her trip and fall to the ground.

"What's wrong?" Riza asked, turning around to see if someone was in the corridor.

He still held her arm, standing between her and the door and staring nervously at the empty doorway. The dark figure was there. His eyes were all black, his shirt all torn and bloody, his chest wounded so badly you could see part of his ribs, his military boots covered in a mixture of dirt and blood. He was standing by the Lieutenant's side when Roy opened the door and didn't move an inch when he pulled her away from him.

"_Hodina priyet tee platit tvoie hurrish." _ The strange man said slowly, in a whispering voice, before his evil grin faded away as the rest of his body. Again, he had vanished into thin air.

"What's wrong?" Riza asked again, louder this time.

Colonel Mustang finally let go of her arm and the Lieutenant pushed him to the side. She went back to the empty corridor, pointing her gun at nothing. No one was there, so she lowered her gun and turned back to the Colonel. He looked as he had just met the devil itself.

"Why did you pull me like that? I thought there was someone here."

"I…" He started to say, but couldn't come up with anything. He just stared at the doorway, noticing that the smell of blood still lingered.

He couldn't tell her he thought he saw someone standing right next to her, bleeding through some nasty wound and grinning like a maniac. She would think he was completely mad. He knew he was only hallucinating, so he couldn't be mad, could he? Roy tried to think of an exact definition for 'madness', but of course, the word had as wide a definition as possible.

"Sorry, I heard a noise." He finally managed to say. "Did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm all right." She said, even though her arm did hurt a little. "Seriously sir, I'm worried about you."

"I'm fine… I'll just finish my breakfast and we'll go. It will take only a couple of minutes."

"You don't have to rush."

"Coffee?" He offered.

Lieutenant Hawkeye usually wouldn't take it, but maybe if she did sit down to drink some coffee he would calm down and talk.

"I'll get some, don't worry."

"Help yourself." He answered, grabbing the plate and eating while walking from one side of the kitchen to the other, and then again. He was like a wild animal in a zoo pacing back and forth, stressed by its own confinement.

Riza watched him quietly as he finished eating. She had never seen him that nervous before. He disappeared through the door to get his jacket and the rest of his stuff and Riza just sat there, lost in her thoughts.

"How do you think I'd look if I were to wear glasses?" Roy asked from the bedroom.

"What?"

"Never mind."

Roy came back to the kitchen, completely dressed, but still looking very agitated. Riza stood up and walked out of the apartment as he got the keys to close the door. Roy tried to stick the key in the keyhole, but his hand trembled and he just couldn't.

"Colonel…"

"Damn key…" He complained, very irritated, forcing the key against the lock without success.

"Colonel…"

"Got it." He said, turning the key and finally managing to lock the door. "Let's go."

"Wait."

"What?"

Roy felt an urge to look over his shoulders and make sure nobody was behind him, but Riza would certainly notice his paranoia. He just looked in her eyes, trying to calm down and look as normal as he could.

"You can't go like this." The Lieutenant said in honest concern.

Roy looked awful. He was nervous and sweating, although Riza could see by his still wet hair that he had just taken a shower. It was pretty obvious that if he had gotten any sleep, it was far from being enough.

"Please, call in sick today and stay home."

"Lieutenant, I can't. We have a case to solve before someone else gets killed…" He said, suddenly remembering something.

All the victims had died under strange circumstances. Mulder had talked over and over about an inhuman murderer. Roy looked away from the Lieutenant, trying to be rational. He was stressed out by the case, which made him highly susceptible to suggestion. He was hallucinating and that hallucination had taken the form of some creepy ghost because Mulder had suggested the existence of one. Maybe if the agent hadn't said that, his mind would have come up with something completely different to disturb him.

"Sir? …Sir?"

"What?" Colonel Mustang said, trying to shake those thoughts away.

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"Sorry, I didn't."

"You're staying home today."

She wasn't just suggesting it, she was actually ordering him to stay home. Her behavior didn't surprise him, though. The Lieutenant was already used to telling him what to do when she thought it was best for him.

"As long as I remember, I outrank you…" He joked.

"I'll go to the headquarters and tell them you have the flu or something."

"The flu sounds good…" He said with a sigh.

She got the keys from his hand and opened the door.

"I'll come to check on you at lunch time. Try to get some rest, okay?"

"Thanks..."

He knew he needed to work, but the thought that he had no other choice but to stay home was relieving. Even though he could just ignore her, he showed no resistance and just did as Riza told him, going back to his bed to try to at least rest with his eyes closed. He was too tired to argue with the only one person that seemed to notice that despite all his efforts to look mentally healthy, something was wrong with him. Deep inside he wanted someone to notice that and maybe tell him was the heck was happening to him. He just couldn't pluck up the courage to tell his always so loyal Lieutenant that his goals, the goals that she also fought for, could be unreachable. How could he lead the country if he had some sort of mental disease?

* * *

All right, so... talking about my theory... I concluded that Arakawa probably hasn't met Chris Carter, so I now present you some evidence of that:

**If Arakawa had met Chris Carter… **

- Cancerman would be behind father.

- Bradley could only be killed by sticking a metal needle to the back of his neck.

- Everyone that fought Bradley would be infected by that crazy virus that causes polycitemia.

- Edward and Alphonse's experience transmutating their mother would be some false memory implanted in their minds to hide the fact that they were actually abducted by a spaceship.

- Breda, Fallman and Fuery would actually fit perfectly as the anime version of the Lone gunmen. Of course they'd have to be completely paranoid, too.

- Instead of almost being eaten by Gluttony, we'd have Riza fighting that cancer-eater? "You have what I need…" *People watching at home: "Oooooh, crap…"*

- Maybe we'd have some romantic scene with Roy and Riza? That'd be nice. But before you go all crazy thinking about that possibility, remember the bee? Yeap, I still hate that bee.

What about you, what do you think? Has Arakawa met Chris Carter or not? If you have any theories about it, you can write your evidence in a review and I can publish it next chapter. So thanks for reading, and let me know your opinion about the topic. And never mind my BS, I'm probably just too happy today because I quit that hell I used to call a job.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: **Me? No… I don't own them. I just borrow the stories, but I don't always have good intentions when I do so.

I want to say thanks to Gamer AlchemistZ and ssadroppout for their reviews!

* * *

**Chapter 12**

Explaining to the superior officers that the Colonel couldn't work that day was the easy part. Dealing with all the paperwork sent to their office that day, on the other hand, was very tiresome. More than anything, Lieutenant Hawkeye was worried about Roy, but she wouldn't be able to leave the headquarters until lunchtime. Never before had one single morning seemed to pass so slowly.

"The two agents wanted to know if we'll work on the investigation today." Breda said, coming from their dorms on the other floor in the building.

"Tell them we'll work on that as soon as we're done here." Riza said, without taking her eyes from the reports she was reading.

"Yes, ma'am."

Since the Colonel wasn't there, the others had to follow Riza's orders. The only significant difference, however, was that work got done a little bit faster when she was in charge. And since getting rid of the paperwork quickly was a priority that day, nobody stopped, not even for a cup of coffee until lunchtime, when Riza admitted a break was called for. She told the others she would take the documents that needed to be signed to the Colonel in his apartment and left.

"Is it just me or she looks kinda nervous today?" Havoc asked his colleagues when the sound of her steps down the corridor wasn't audible anymore.

"She must be worried about the Colonel." Fuery suggested.

"That's possible, but she came in today like miss hurricane or something, trying to get us to work as quickly as possible and then she sat on that chair with her mind miles away from here…"

The others had to admit her behavior was weird.

"I think she's been spending too much time with that Mulder guy." Breda joked.

"She should." Havoc said with a laugh.

The others stared quizzically at him.

"What? Maybe this way the Colonel will see that he's not the only man around her." Havoc explained.

"He would have agent Mulder arrested before he admitted that he was jealous." Fallman said.

"I just don't understand those two." Fuery said with a sigh.

"You and everyone." Breda complained.

"Feeling any better?" Riza asked when Roy opened the door of his apartment.

"Not really..."

"I know you're tired, but I have some documents for you to sign." She said, sadly aware that no matter the circumstances, they could never get away from work.

"Come on in."

He plunked onto his couch and looked at the documents, thinking that the last thing he wanted to do now was read them. The idea of wearing glasses was starting to sound a lot more interesting.

"Can I just sign them or should I read them?" Mustang finally asked.

"You can just sign, no one will know." Riza said, although under usual circumstances she would never let him sign a single document without reading it carefully first. That time, she had already anticipated that and had read all of them thoroughly herself.

He got a pen and started signing everything, but his signature looked a little weird on some of the papers, as though his hand was shaking slightly. Riza checked all the papers again and put them back in the suitcase she was carrying.

"Have you had lunch yet?" She asked.

"If I had any food… I didn't go shopping."

"I'll get something then."

"Wait, Lieutenant…"

Roy stood up, feeling that he had been bothering her too much already. He could take care of himself. He shouldn't just hide in his apartment and let the world take care of him. It was ridiculous. A grown-up man depending on somebody else to do everything for him.

"You don't have to, I'll go buy something. You don't have to worry about me."

"I was just thinking that I didn't have lunch either and I might not have enough time to eat at the headquarters." Lt. Hawkeye said, not willing to give up yet.

"You haven't eaten yet? And what do you expect to cook in such short time?"

"I could go to that restaurant on the other block and bring something here."

"Okay, I'll clean up here, then… My kitchen's a mess…" He finally conceded.

Arguing was useless, since she always got her way. He closed the door after her and headed lazily to the kitchen to wash the dishes and make some space on the table so they could eat.

"_Hodina… priyet…" _

The voice sounded like its owner wasn't human. Roy shivered at the sound of it and turned around quickly. There he was, once more. The man with the torn dirty clothes, all bloody, with the same evil grin on his face, watching him as an animal watches its prey.

"What do you want?" Roy yelled at him, taking a couple of steps forward.

"…_tee… platit…" _The man kept on saying, his expression unchanged by Roy's sudden confrontation.

"Go away!" The Colonel yelled again, throwing the glass he had on his hand at the figure.

The glass just went through the man like he wasn't there and hit the wall, breaking and spreading broken pieces all over the place.

"…_tvoie hurrish…" _The man covered in blood finished his sentence, before disappearing for less than half a second and showing up again closer to Roy.

It was like he had walked, but he hadn't moved his legs. His pitch black eyes met Roy's eyes and he raised a hand in the air, trying to reach the Colonel.

"Go away!"

Roy tried to punch him, but his hands just went across him. He could clearly see the person there, but couldn't touch him.

"I'm hallucinating…" He said to himself, walking away from the man. "What does all that mean? Damn it… Why are you still here? Go away like you did before, damn it!"

He tossed a metal lid against the man and nothing happened. He grabbed another glass and was about to throw it, but stopped. Nonsense. He was attacking something that wasn't even there to begin with. Roy stared at the man. He wasn't there, he told himself again. It was all in his head. But why did he feel so threatened by a hallucination? What did that person mean? Why had his mind come up with something like that man?

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a loud knock on the door and then the pain on his hand and fingers. He had crushed the glass with his right hand. For a moment he looked away from the hallucination and when he looked back, it was gone. Vanished. Just like before.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" He shouted so Riza could hear him, and examined his hand.

He had some bad-looking cuts and small pieces of glass were still in them. He grabbed a dish cloth, wrapped it around his hand, trying to stop the bleeding, and went to answer the door.

"What on earth happened?" The Lieutenant asked very surprised when she saw the cloth around his hand stained with blood and his shirt too, stained in red.

"I broke a glass, nothing serious." Roy said.

She walked in and went to put the paper bags she had on the kitchen table. There was broken glass everywhere. She turned around and saw her boss sitting on the couch, still holding the dish cloth around his wounded hand. He looked exhausted. He risked raising his eyes and looking at Riza and she could see embarrassment in his gaze.

Knowing him too well, she decided not to ask questions for now and sat by his side on the couch.

"Let me see that."

"Have something to eat, you need to go back to work."

"Colonel, please…"

She took the dish cloth and examined the cuts. Most of them were still bleeding quite a lot, so she got some gauze Roy kept in the bathroom and a towel soaked in water and started to clean the wounds.

"There's still a piece of glass here. You don't have any tweezers, do you?"

"No, I don't think so."

"No need. Got it…"

She took the glass with empty hands and put it aside.

"Be careful, don't cut yourself." Roy said.

"This looks terrible. You'll need bandages."

"I can get a doctor to look at this, go back to work."

"I'll just clean this and put some bandages, it won't take long."

"You'll be late. It's an order, go to work."

"I'll go back when I finish this."

Roy stared at her, but she completely ignored his angry look and continued picking the remaining pieces of glass and cleaning the cuts.

"There. I'm done." Riza said after a few minutes and stood up.

"Thank you. Eat something before you go."

"In a moment. Give me that dirty shirt."

"Just go have lunch..." Roy moaned.

He couldn't help but thinking that there was a good reason for so many people in the headquarters to say that she was his babysitter. Usually he wouldn't mind the jokes, but right now he was starting to feel embarrassed as he recognized how much he depended on her.

"I'll just rinse it so the blood doesn't stain. You don't want to lose a perfectly good white shirt because of some kitchen accident, do you? Take it off."

"Usually I'd have liked to hear that from a woman…" Roy complained, taking the shirt off. "But that would be in a completely different situation…"

"Colonel!"

"Damn…" Roy mumbled to himself. "I'm sorry Lieutenant… I shouldn't make jokes like that."

"I don't care about your jokes. How did you get those bruises?" She asked, clearly concerned.

"What are you talking about?"

"Those bruises on your chest… on your back!"

Roy looked down his own body and noticed a big bruise on the right side of his chest. It was a mixture of green and purple that suggested he had taken a heavy blow to his chest. Riza made him turn around on the couch to inspect his back and pointed another two big bruises, one a few centimeters below his left shoulder and another one on the small of his back.

"How did you hurt yourself like this?"

"I have no idea. I must have bumped into the furniture…" Roy said and scratched his head, trying to remember anything he could have done to get such bad bruises.

"That would explain bruises on your legs and arms maybe, but on your back? On your chest?"

"I don't know, all right? I'm not lying. I have no idea how I got hurt, okay?" Roy said, very annoyed by her scrutinizing his upper body.

Riza sat by his side again, still holding the bloody shirt, now completely forgotten.

"Colonel, you really have no idea how you got those bruises?"

"No."

"And how did you manage to get broken glass all over the kitchen?"

Roy looked away, clearly avoiding her gaze. He didn't want that. He hated to be cornered like that and he hated more the fact that he couldn't even be angry at her. She was worried about him and being angry would only make him an ingrate bastard.

"What's going on?" She insisted. "You know me, you can trust me. I'm begging you, tell me what's wrong."

His silence only made her more worried. So many years she had been by his side and now it hurt her to see there were still things he couldn't bring himself to share with her. She could help him at work, but seemed like when it came to personal matters, he still tried to drive her away from his life.

"Roy…"

He raised his head, still not looking at her. Hearing her call him by his first name brought back memories, memories from a time of naïve dreams. Sweet naïve dreams.

"It's been years since you called me by my first name." He said as he now realized how their work in the military had brought them close and distant at the same time.

"Please…"

Riza placed a hand on Roy's shoulder, trying to break that barrier that still existed in between them. Roy rubbed his forehead, feeling his stomach somersault. Rarely had he been so nervous before in his life. The fear of her reaction, along with the built-up anxiety from the last few days made him want to scream.

"Lieutenant… Riza…"

"You can talk to me about anything, you know that."

"I think I'm ill."

"What do you mean ill?"

"Mentally ill." He said with impatience. Talking about it was so hard that now he had started, he just wanted to get over with it as quickly as possible. "I can't sleep, I can't focus, I'm nervous all the time."

"You're stressed." Riza said, unconsciously holding on to his shoulder tighter, trying to give him some comfort.

"No. No."

"All the work, the responsibilities, the pressure… Everybody has a breaking point. I do. _You_ do."

"You don't get me."

The Lieutenant noticed he was starting to get worked up again. The thought of hugging him like someone would hug a crying child to calm her down crossed her mind, but she didn't feel comfortable enough to do so. The barrier between them felt bigger again.

"What makes you think you're ill?" She asked instead, letting go of his shoulder and trying to control her own emotions at the moment.

"I keep seeing… hearing… things that don't exist. I'm hallucinating." He finally said, staring at some dark spot on the wooden floor.

Riza was quiet for a moment. Roy didn't want to see the expression on her face, but her silence made it impossible not to look at her. As soon as he did so, he regretted having told her. She looked not only concerned but also scared for him.

"Hallucinations?" She repeated, hoping that she had understood it wrong. Not him, she thought. Not Roy…

He just nodded.

"When you grabbed my arm and pulled me inside in the morning… You said you heard a noise."

"Sorry, I lied. I saw something. But there was nothing there, as you yourself saw."

"The broken glass in the kitchen…"

"I threw a glass against the wall and I accidentally crushed another one on my hand. That's it. I'm losing it. Going crazy. Better lock me up in the loony bin before I start bugging strangers on the street, talking about the apocalypse." He said, getting up and walking towards the window.

Riza stayed in the couch, searching desperately for words of comfort. She couldn't think of anything to say. Was there anything she _could_ say to make him feel better in such a situation?

"Maybe you have a fever? Something else that might explain your hallucinations?"

"No. I'm just very tired. You have to go to work now, you're late already. Just… don't tell the others about this, okay? Please."

Riza sighed. She really needed to go back to work. She put the stained shirt in a bucket with some water and walked back to the living room. Roy was already waiting to close the door behind her.

"I'll be back in the end of afternoon, take care."

"Okay…"

"And stay away from the kitchen. I'll pick up the glass when I come back."

"Yes, yes…"

She was going to leave, she was two steps away from the door. Two more steps and she would have managed the situation professionally. However, something inside her said it just wasn't the right approach at the moment. It wouldn't be fair to Roy.

Roy was caught by surprise when all of a sudden she turned around and gave him a kiss on his left cheek.

"We'll sort this out. Hang in there, okay?" She said, her face only a few inches away from his.

She walked outside and turned one last time to look at him before he closed the door.

"Thank you." He said with a smile, before his Lieutenant disappeared down the corridor.

* * *

**N/A: **Finally, an "aaawww" moment… Well, for those who were expecting something a little more "caliente", I'm sorry, but it wouldn't fit in here.

I have some more reasons to believe that Arakawa hasn't met Chris Carter after all, so let's go!

**If Arakawa had met Chris Carter…**

-Envy, instead of being able to look like anyone, would be able to stretch and contort his body (and eat human livers) like Eugene V Tooms. Yuk!

-OR, if Envy would still be able to transform itself to look like anyone, Riza Hawkeye, Maria Ross, Winry Rockbell, and Olivier Armstrong would all give birth to babies with pig tails (yes, that's a curly tail at the base of the spine- for those who don't know about Eddie Van Blundht, Jr.) within a few days of each other.

Thanks to ssadropout for those! And I wouldn't want to be Envy if he tricked Hawkeye like that. Roy did a number on him for killing Hughes, imagine if on top of that he had managed to trick Riza? Envy would be soooooo screwed… Here goes some more of my own:

-Maria Ross would go missing, and when they found her, they'd find lots of clones of her as well.

-Besides investigating about the homunculi, Roy and Riza would get some other interesting cases, maybe involving mutant cockroaches, for example. Of course they wouldn't have any metallic/robotic cockroaches as evidence in the end, because the Colonel would probably just burn them…

-Roy could take a little trip to Russia (or maybe just one of the alchemy labs in Amestris) and find out about some not very conventional involving a black liquid from a meteorite. Of course he would find out about it the _hard_ way, but he would be back all right, even after scaring the crap out of the people watching at home when his eyes turned all black.

Well, if you can please leave a review, I'd appreciate it. It makes my heart warm and it's too damn cold here where I live. Winter suuuuuucks…. And if you have anything to add to my theory, feel free to write it in your review. Thanks for reading and see you next week!


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA or TXF... All I have are crazy ideas...

I want to say thanks to Gamer AlchemistZ, StarCatcher1858, ssadropout, mebh and Toushirou-chan for your reviews!

ssadropout: I couldn't answer your review through the site, so let me answer here. Congratulations on finding that out. I mispelled some of the words on purpose and they don't really add up to make a sentence, because I don't speak that language. Both my parents do so I have a dictionary here, that's why I based the words on that. Thanks for reviewing!

* * *

**Chapter 13**

Riza got back to the office and found out that all the others were already there, rushing to get things done as soon as possible. She sat by her desk with her own share of paperwork and took a quick look at the empty chair where the Colonel always sat. A painful feeling that the chair might be empty for longer than she had previously thought struck her and she shook her head slightly, trying not to think about that.

She read the first report from the pile, checking the information on it. As everything was according to the official data sent from a higher office, she got a pen to sign it. The picture of the Colonel signing the reports earlier came to her mind. His hand was shaking when he signed the papers. She couldn't bring herself to stop thinking about the look on his face, when he was sitting on the couch, holding the dish cloth wrapped around his bloody hand. Mentally ill… The words sounded alien. It just didn't seem to add up.

It was then that something dawned on her. The victims from the case they were investigating had also been acting strange days before they died. And Roy… He fitted the pattern. He was a soldier and he lived alone. Riza's heart skipped a beat. Could he be also a target?

"Lieutenant?" Havoc asked, holding a stash of paper in front of her.

"Yes?" She said, realizing now that she had been staring at the wall for some time.

Havoc handed her the papers, confused about her behavior. He had seen her tired from too much work before, but she had never been absentminded like that. If the Colonel were there, he could talk to her and find out what was wrong, but the Second Lieutenant thought that if he himself asked what was going on, she would most likely say nothing.

"These are the last reports we revised. We added the information that was missing." He said.

"Thank you."

"We're done for now. Should I get the agents?"

"Yes, bring them here."

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Mulder and Scully were both happy to leave their dorms again. They followed the Second Lieutenant towards the office, noticing that Havoc seemed to be in a hurry that day. He walked so fast that Scully, having shorter legs, almost had to run to keep up with him and Mulder. However, when they entered the office, Colonel Mustang wasn't there. Before they had the time to ask about the man, Hawkeye stood up from her chair and explained that Mustang was home with the flu.

"Really? Well, he did look like hell yesterday…" Mulder said.

Scully hit him with her elbow and asked Riza about their research in the library on the previous day.

"We didn't find anything about the symbols."

"Then what's our next step in this investigation?" Scully asked, hoping that they'd have a plan despite their boss being sick.

"I've been thinking about the medical files we have. They don't contain much information." Riza said.

"Well, we talked to their doctors."

Only two of the victims had gone to an army doctor, even though all of them were obviously having problems. The two soldiers who had actually looked for help didn't want to talk much. At first Riza had thought they might had been threatened, but after talking to Roy, now she finally realized that the reason for them not to want to talk to anyone was a lot more simple.

"When a soldier is sick, they can be dismissed from the army. This makes many soldiers hide certain health problems." She explained.

That was exactly what Roy was doing. He wouldn't tell anyone about his hallucinations because he was afraid of being dismissed. Mulder uncrossed his arms, and Scully shifted her weight from one leg to another. They both considered the idea for a second.

"That probably would explain why these two people didn't want to say much to their doctors." Mulder said.

"They were afraid of being dismissed." Scully agreed.

"And if they lived alone, who could they have talked to?" Mulder continued.

"There are several doctors in the city who don't work for the military. They could have looked for them." Riza said.

Mulder's and Scully's reaction was immediate. They both straightened themselves as they were ready to do what they did best.

"Isn't there a doctor-patient relationship? Do you think they're gonna talk?" Mulder questioned the Lieutenant again.

"If the patients are already dead, I don't see why they wouldn't."

If they had any luck with that, maybe they would find out exactly what symptoms the people who were killed had exhibited. Riza just hoped that those symptoms were different from the ones Roy had. She managed to get a list of the non-military doctors who worked in the city and called Mulder and Scully to go with her.

The agents surprise wasn't half as big as the other soldiers'. Mulder and Scully had been restricted to talking to Mustang and his men and no one else. Hawkeye didn't bother to explain why she wanted them to come along canvass the doctors and left with Mulder and Scully.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"Well, I have to check my records…" The old doctor said, holding the list with the victim's names.

"I didn't see any patients with those names." Another doctor said, putting her glasses back on her desk and giving the list back to Riza.

"No, didn't find them. Sorry." Said another.

"Sorry." Said this time a secretary, after checking the records.

"No, I didn't find them." Another doctor said, before opening the door for them to leave.

"Sorry, I looked in all my files, but I've seen only one of these patients and I'm afraid he's dead."

The young doctor was in his mid-thirties and really had no idea they would be so pleased with that information.

"Which one was your patient?"

"Anthony Siebel. I heard he was killed in his house."

"When was the last time you saw him?" The Lieutenant asked.

"It was… a day or 2 before he died, I can't say for sure." He answered, scratching his beard.

"Why did he come to you?" Scully asked this time.

"I'm sorry, it wouldn't be right to talk about the patient's problems."

"Doctor Crowe, Siebel is already dead. We believe he exhibited some medical symptoms that could have something to do with his death." Riza explained with a strict voice.

"Oh well… He is dead, anyway…" He conceded.

Doctor Crowe got the medical file, but didn't even open it to read. He still remembered that man like he had been to his office just yesterday.

"Siebel wasn't my patient before. He used to see the army doctor, but you know how the army doctors are. Cold are careless. Anything wrong with you and you're dismissed from the army… So he came to me instead. I promised him I wouldn't tell anyone."

Crowe asked them to sit down and kept on talking while looking from Mulder to Scully, then to Lieutenant Hawkeye and back to Mulder. The way he explained about the case made Scully wonder how many hours he had spent thinking about it.

"He started having trouble sleeping and nightmares. It soon got worse to the point he didn't sleep at all. I examined him and he had signs of severe stress, increased heart frequency, tremors, rhythmic movement of the eyes, weight loss… He complained of aching muscles, headaches and feeling utterly exhausted. He also had bruises and scratches all over his body and didn't want to explain them. He seemed to be paranoid, looking around him all the time and jumping at any tiny little noise I made. He couldn't see the difference between reality and fantasy anymore, said there was a ghost after him, that he was cursed. I told him the ghost wasn't real and that it was all in his head, but he didn't believe me."

"Many of these signs can be caused by severe sleep deprivation, but it would have to be something chronic." Scully said.

"Even hallucinations?" The Lieutenant asked.

"That would be uncommon." Scully admitted.

"What about the bruises and scratches?" Riza asked again.

"Most likely self-inflicted."

"That's what I thought, too." Crowe agreed.

"In a scale of one to ten… how sick was he?" Mulder asked the doctor.

"If you consider mental illness… I'd say 9. He didn't attack me nor tried to lick the floor like a patient I had once did… But he was very agitated and his paranoia was severe to the point of affecting him physically. He didn't agree to any treatment and I was going to contact the army and had him hospitalized and held on suicide watch, but then… he was murdered."

"Suicide watch?" Riza repeated the words, clearly disturbed.

"He didn't have any marks that suggested unsuccessful attempts, but he told me he was so exhausted he wanted to die. I thought he might try."

As doctor Crowe didn't have anything else to add, they thanked him and left. Crowe closed the door after them with a light thud. Riza was lost in her thoughts for a second, until Mulder's voice brought her back to reality.

"That was a really good idea, Lieutenant. We have 22 more doctors to ask, maybe we'll be lucky and find someone else with the same symptoms."

"We won't go talk to other doctors now." She said, getting in the car.

"We have to, they might have more information. If we leave this for tomorrow, you may have other things to do." Mulder complained.

"You should have some special division in the army that took care of crime investigations only. You're clearly overloaded." Scully said when they were also back in the car.

Riza ignored their comments, drove a few blocks and then stopped, turning off the engine.

"There's a problem." She said.

"What is it?" Scully asked the woman.

"I have no one else to talk to about this. You have experience in what you called… paranormal phenomena, right?"

"Don't tell me you've been abducted…" Scully said in an annoyed voice.

"I'll trust you to help us, but if you talk to anyone about this, even Second Lieutenant Havoc, Sergeant Fuery or the others, I'll make sure you're charged as spies and executed, you understand?"

"Whoa… We won't talk. We're here to help…" Mulder tried to calm her down.

It was the first time they had heard the Lieutenant talk like that. She was strict and serious, but usually gentle. Something had to be very wrong.

"You have our word." Mulder assured her.

"I think I know who the next victim is."

Riza avoided looking at them as she said the last sentence, staring at the leather wheel instead.

"You're not having trouble sleeping, are you?"

"No. The Colonel is."

"That's natural." Scully said. "He's tired, working around the clock… It's a very demanding work. You know that better than us."

"He's got most of the symptoms doctor Crowe described, including hallucinations."

"What kind of hallucinations?"

"I have no idea."

"Does he have wounds like the other guy did?"

"Bruises. He didn't know how he got them."

Mulder took a second to think about how she could know he had bruises. He concluded it would be better not to ask that and asked a different question instead.

"Could he have hurt himself on purpose? Some people with psychotic behavior do that."

"No, I honestly don't think so."

"We should look for one of those symbols under his bed." Mulder said. "And Scully's a doctor, so she could examine him."

"That's what I want to do. Just bear in mind he'll go ballistic when he finds out I told you about him." Riza explained.

She sighed, thinking about her last words. She had betrayed his confidence by telling those two foreigners about his problems. From all people he had trusted only her to talk about it and she didn't keep it a secret for even a day. It didn't matter. She would do whatever she needed to do to protect him, whether he liked it or not.

* * *

**A/N: **Hello, everyone! I hope you're enjoying the investigation! They finally know Roy may be in danger, so you can be at ease, at least for now. I won't spend much time typing here because it's too damn COOOOLLLLLDDDD! So thanks for reading and please leave a review if you have the time.**  
**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything...

I want to say thanks to Gamer AlchemistZ, ssadropout, Toushirou-chan, Hina Kita and mebh for reviewing in the last chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 14**

Mulder and Scully got off the car and looked at the apartment building. There was no one at the entrance of the building and the door was open. Things were much calmer at that time. Scully was thinking that if it were at their time, there would be a doorman and probably a camera as well. And that door would sure be locked.

Riza didn't seem to find the lack of security strange. She just walked towards the entrance, but Mulder walked away from them for a second. He had caught sight of someone familiar. An old man was sitting on a bench just across from the Colonel's building. He had apparently fallen asleep, but woke up quickly when Mulder talked to him.

"Haven't we met before?"

Scully and Riza turned around and saw the man Mulder had talked too. It was the same old man Mulder and Scully had met outside the headquarters a few days before. On that day he was trying to listen to the agents' conversation, but when Mulder tried to talk to him, he got nervous and left.

"There must be a mistake. I d-d-don't know you." The man stuttered, standing up and walking away.

Mulder went after the guy, still insisting on talking to him. Mulder just knew that he was there for a reason. The man told Mulder to leave him alone and stepped away, but then realized the blonde woman in the military uniform was walking towards him as well.

"Sir?" The Lieutenant called. "Sir."

That woman was a soldier and she had gun. She was First Lieutenant and was carrying a gun with her at that exact moment. The old man could visualize the cold metal of the weapon, and the thought made him panic. He wasn't exactly brave and even though he had never been shot, few things in the world could scare him more than the sound of a gun being fired.

"Sir, can you tell us what you're doing here?" Riza asked as she got closer.

Suddenly, the stranger began to run, desperate to get away from them. He knew they would come after him, but he didn't want to talk. They would ask questions that he'd rather not answer. Mulder and the Lieutenant started running after him, but Scully stayed at the entrance of the building. She didn't know the city and wasn't even carrying a gun, so she thought it would be better to stay.

The stranger went in a dark alley, climbed a few abandoned wooden boxes and then the top of a fence. He looked back and saw the soldier and the FBI agent coming, so he kicked the pile of boxes before jumping over the fence.

"Damn it." Mulder complained, stepping back so the boxes wouldn't fall on him. Just by his side, the Lieutenant was already pushing a dumpster towards the tall wooden fence which was too high for her to jump over. Before she could climb it, Mulder jumped on the dumpster and over the fence, leaving her behind. However, being considerably shorter, jumping that obstacle was more difficult for her than it was for Mulder. She finally managed to get back to the street and looked in the direction Mulder and the old man had run to, but didn't see anyone.

Scully was resting against the wall when she saw Riza returning alone.

"Where's Mulder?"

"I lost them. We have to go look for him." She said, hiding her frustration.

"Mulder's a fast runner, but he doesn't know the city." The red-headed agent said.

"He must be lost. I'm going to look for him and you're coming with me."

Scully didn't protest, as she also wanted to find Mulder as soon as possible, so they could go on with the investigation. They got in the car and left to look for the FBI agent.

A few blocks away, just behind what was left of the wall of an abandoned store, the old man was trying to hide. He did his best to control his breathing, trying not to make too much noise. He stared at his own shoes. Shabby black leather shoes…so muddy. Maybe he could wash them later. Anyway, he would have to get rid of that persistent guy first.

"Gotcha!"

He screamed and tried to get away, but Mulder had come from behind him and grabbed him by his coat, not willing to let him run away again. The man fought back, but the FBI agent was stronger. Mulder pushed the guy against the brick wall, twisted his arm behind his back and made him turn around, facing the wall.

"You're hurting me!" The guy yelled angrily. He wasn't so young anymore and he didn't like to be treated like a criminal. He wasn't a criminal at all, why the hell was he the one being attacked?

Mulder pressed him against the wall harder and pulled his arm even more. It took the man great effort not to scream in pain.

"What were you doing there? Are you following the Colonel?"

"No, damn it!"

"You know something!" Mulder insisted.

A couple of women who were walking by the street stopped to look at them, very worried, thinking whether they should call the police or not. They started to walk away, looking for someone who might help the poor old man, but Mulder noticed their concern.

"Federal business." The Federal agent said, showing them the FBI badge he had gotten back after they had joined the investigation.

They nodded nervously and went away. Only then Mulder remembered he didn't have any jurisdiction in that country. Maybe he sounded so normal that they believed him. The old man squealed this time, as his arm hurt badly and Mulder still wouldn't let go of him.

"What do you know about the murders?" The agent asked again.

"Nothing!"

"You're lying! Who brought us here?"

"I don't know!"

Mulder didn't want to hurt the guy, but he needed information and he didn't have handcuffs or anything. If he tried to drag the man back to the Colonel's apartment building, he might run away. Besides, he was so focused in chasing the suspicious man he didn't pay attention to where he was going.

"What's your name?"

"Eriz! Damn it, you're gonna break my arm!"

"Eriz… If you did nothing wrong you don't have to be afraid. Now tell me what you were doing there."

"Resting!"

"You know something about those deaths, don't you? But I get the feeling that you're not the one responsible for them."

Eriz stopped squirming for a moment.

"Who brought us here?" Mulder asked.

"I didn't kill anyone."

"That's not what I asked, Eriz."

Mulder pulled the man from the wall a bit, although he still held his arm. Eriz sighed in relief.

"I did."

"You brought agent Scully and me here? How?"

"If by agent Scully you mean that woman with red hair, yes…"

"How?"

"I summoned you."

"Summoned?"

Mulder allowed Eriz to turn around to face him. The man straightened his grey hair and rubbed his arm, before staring at Mulder.

"My people, the Urbasan, used to live in this area long before this country was formed. We summoned help of the spirits and practiced other rituals for protection and prosperity. Not many of us still live here. I couldn't do anything alone so I summoned you."

"Spirits?" Mulder asked with sheer curiosity.

He took on an interested expression and Eriz laughed, finally relaxing a little.

"You're not spirits… I asked the free spirits for help and they sent you."

"Why us?"

"How the heck should I know? I summoned help and you two showed up!"

Mulder blinked a couple of times and licked his lips, trying to process that. It was all too weird, but it was actually starting to make sense.

"The symbols on the basement… The candles…"

"It's a white magic ritual…"

"So we were brought here to help… Help with what? The murder investigation?"

"Help stop him…"

"Stop who?" Mulder wouldn't stop asking questions.

Eriz saw the determined look on the agent's face and decided to answer the questions before Mulder got any new ideas, like smashing his head against the wall.

"I c-can't say his name. If I pronounce his name he'll know. He'll kill me if he f-f-finds out I'm trying to stop him!" He started to yell.

"You're not helping anyone, you just called us here. Now why do we have to stop this guy? Is he the one who murdered those people?"

"No, but he summoned the liejen dush."

Mulder was already getting frustrated with all that. Eriz didn't just know something. He seemed to know all about it. Mulder wanted to take the old man to the headquarters, interrogate him properly and record his statement. He also wanted to know more about the Urbasan and the rituals they performed. He would love to watch them if he could. But right now, all he could do was focus on the case.

"What is this liej-"

"An earth-bound spirit. The liejen dush is the one who killed those people and the man I'm talking about controls it."

"You were following the Colonel. Is he being haunted by that earth-bound spirit?"

"Yes…"

"How do we keep the spirit from killing him?"

"It's too late. The liejen dush will kill him soon and… the man… will give it another task."

"How can we help if you don't tell us how?"

Eriz stuck his hand inside his coat and gave Mulder a black and white photograph. In the picture, he could see three people wearing long white clothes, standing around candles and flowers. It looked like they were performing some magic ritual. Eriz didn't bother to explain what the men were doing in the photograph. He just pointed the man on the left.

"That's him."

He was very short, and had short straight hair. Judging by the black and white photograph, his hair was probably light brown. He had some subtle wrinkles on his face that suggested he was in his late thirties, maybe early forties.

"How do we stop him?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to kill him. He's too dangerous to be left alive. The Urbasan used white magic only, with good intentions, but this man uses black magic."

"Seems like you're afraid of him, Eriz."

"Of course I am! His powers are way t-t-too strong for me to t-try to counteract them with good magic! You would be afraid too if you knew what he can do, you ignorant!"

Mulder was a little surprised by Eriz's outburst.

"And how do we save the Colonel?" He insisted.

"It's too late, I told you… But… it's possible to protect him for a while longer. Maybe this way you have enough time to find this man and kill him before he summons the liejen dush to kill another person."

"And then the spirit won't kill the Colonel." Mulder said again, trying to get the answer he wanted to hear.

"The liejen dush has already been given the task!" Eriz started yelling again with impatience. "I'm sorry. All I can do is keep the spirit busy for longer so you can kill the man before he gives the liejen dush another task."

Eriz got something from his pocket that looked like colored strings knotted together, with four different beads tied to them, each one of a different color. It looked like something cheap you could buy at the handcraft stores in a small town of some Latin American country, but Eriz held it carefully, as though it was something very important.

"Take this. Tell the Colonel to tie it around his wrist. It should keep the earth-bound spirit away from him for some time."

"For how long?"

"Until the protection wears off. I'm sorry, but my powers are limited. This is the best protection amulet I can offer you."

Eriz moved away from the wall. Mulder was going to stop him from leaving, but he then noticed a symbol drawn on the wall. Eriz had quietly drawn it with dirt while talking to the agent. Mulder thought of alchemy, but if he had ever seen alchemy symbols before, he would know that thing was something clearly different.

"I have to go." Eriz said without moving.

Suddenly the dust from the ground was raised on the air by a powerful circling wind and Mulder had to cover his eyes and face. When he looked back at the place where Eriz had been standing, there was just no one there. The Urbasan had just vanished into thin air.

"How did he…"

* * *

**A/N: **Well... Yes, my idea is crazy. Now you know why I picked the X Files for this crossover. If Chris Carter can write about ghosts, mutants, aliens, demons and all, I guess I can write about spirits. Anyway, this was an important chapter for the plot and I'd appreciate if you could leave an opinion! Thanks to everyone who's reading and see you next Friday!


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: **I don't own FMA or TXF... All I own is a booklet full of stuff I need to study. Damn it, I swear that booklet is gonna become alive and bite me sooner or later... ¬¬'

I want to say thanks to mebh, Gamer AlchemistZ, ssadropout, Toushirou-chan and Hina Kita for reviewing in the last chapter! You're great, guys!

* * *

**Chapter 15**

Riza had been driving around the Colonel's place for about twenty minutes when she finally spotted Mulder, walking slowly by the street with his hands shoved in his pockets and looking all around, obviously lost.

"Did you get him?" The Lieutenant stopped the car by his side and asked Mulder.

"I did, but he escaped. He told me some interesting stuff, though."

"Get in the car." She ordered.

Mulder opened the back door and sat by Scully's side. Riza turned off the engine and turned around to look at Mulder, who calmly reported the conversation with Eriz and how the man had managed to escape using his magic.

"Do you believe Eriz was telling the truth? He could be lying. He could be the one doing this." Riza considered.

"No, he wasn't lying. His panic was real. He's really afraid of this guy."

"Did he say how we can protect the Colonel from this spirit?"

"He said we can keep the spirit away using this."

Mulder showed her the string bracelet and repeated what Eriz had said about it. Lieutenant Hawkeye felt relieved to know that something could protect Roy, but she could tell by Mulder's tone of voice and his expression that there was something wrong.

"And when the protection wears off?" She asked, afraid that it wouldn't be enough to save her boss.

"The liejen dush will kill him. Eriz said it's been already assigned its task and we can't save the Colonel, no matter what we do."

Riza looked away from Mulder, staring at her own hands on the steering wheel, in shock. Why did this have to happen? She couldn't understand how someone could use something so unreal to curse Roy like that. Mulder and Scully were quiet for a moment, until the Lieutenant started the car.

"Are you all right?" Scully asked, feeling sorry for her.

Scully didn't know what kind of relationship the Lieutenant and the Colonel had, but she could tell they were close, so it was sure difficult for Lt. Hawkeye to hear all that.

"Does it matter?" Riza asked her back.

Riza drove back to the building where Roy lived, trying to process all that was going on. Mulder could be lying. He and Scully could be spies from another country, trying to fool them. She wished more than anything that Mulder was lying. However, somehow she knew he wasn't. Now she couldn't stop wondering why she hadn't thought of that before. Roy fitted the pattern and he was in charge of the investigation. She should have told him to be more careful. She should have been able to predict this. She should just have done something before it was too damn late.

Riza parked the car in front of the Colonel's building, swallowed that agonizing feeling that had taken control of her and got off the vehicle.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

"What are you doing here?" Roy asked the moment he opened the door and saw Mulder and Scully with the Lieutenant.

"We have new information."

Roy didn't like the fact that the agents now knew where he lived, but he trusted Riza's judgment. She sure had a good reason to bring them there, so he invited them in and they all sat down in the living room.

"Have you ever seen any of these men?" Mulder asked right away, showing Mustang the picture of the three men wearing white clothes.

"I've seen this guy before…" The Colonel said, pointing at the guy on the left. "Hm… Phone company guy. He was here a few days ago."

He couldn't help but noticing the look on Riza's face when he said that. It was like she had just heard terrible news.

"Is he involved?" He asked her.

"Did you leave him alone? Maybe for a few seconds?" Mulder asked before Hawkeye could say anything.

"I think so… Yes… Some kid detonated a trash can on the street. I heard the noise and I went to check it. He stayed here, said he was fixing the phone."

Mulder suddenly stood up and went to the corridor.

"Where the hell are you going?" Roy asked, very irritated.

"Is this your bedroom?" Mulder was already yelling from the other side of the apartment.

Roy followed him very irritated and found the agent in his bedroom, lifting the frame of his bed carelessly and dropping the covers and the pillow on the floor.

"You don't think you'll find a symbol under my bed, do you, Mr. Mulder?"

"Already did."

"What?"

Roy looked very surprised at the frame and there it was, the symbol drawn in black ink. The same from the crime scenes.

"I'm afraid your hallucinations are real, Colonel." Mulder explained.

"Hallucinations? How did you…" Colonel Mustang started to say, but soon understood how he could know it. "Wait a minute… Lieutenant!" He yelled angrily.

Riza walked towards him, already aware that his reaction wouldn't be very nice.

"Did you tell them about me?" He asked in a low but severe voice.

"Yes, sir."

"I thought I was very clear about it. You weren't supposed to tell anyone."

"I apologize, sir."

"Of all the insubordinations I took from you, this was the worst, Lieutenant. Damn it… I trusted you."

More than angry, Roy was feeling betrayed. He had shared this with her only and was sure she wouldn't tell anyone. Riza was the person he trusted the most. Mulder and Scully watched in silence, thinking that it might not be a good time to interrupt. Riza was struggling to keep looking in Roy's eyes now. If he were only angry, she would be able to deal with it, but he was disappointed and this hurt her badly. However, she could hide it quite well, after so many years working in the military. She always had to hide feelings that bugged her and be strong because that's what he expected from her.

"We found new information about one of the victims. Lieutenant Hawkeye was afraid that you could be the next victim. That's why she told us." Scully decided to finally break the disconcerting silence.

"Who else did you tell?" Roy ignored the agent and asked his Lieutenant.

"No one, just them." Riza said.

"And what is that thing about my hallucinations being real?" Mustang asked Mulder this time.

"Perhaps you'd better sit down, Colonel." Mulder said, thinking that it'd be better to prepare the man for what he was going to say.

"You don't tell me what to do. Now just tell me what the hell was all that about." Roy snapped, not willing to move from where he was.

Mulder just repeated everything Doctor Crowe had said when they went to his office and what Eriz had told him later, including the part about how the Urbasan had said it was too late to stop the spirit from finishing his task. Roy listened to him, but still wasn't sure if he should believe him or not. He looked at the Lieutenant, silently asking her opinion about all that. She just looked back without saying a word, but the expression on her face made it quite clear she believed it.

Roy sighed, looking away from everyone for a moment, trying to think. He took a few steps towards the window to stare at the street. Hawkeye and the two FBI agents apparently understood that he needed a few seconds to get his thoughts straight, so they didn't say a word. Finally, Roy went back to the living room and sat on the couch. The others followed him quietly. They watched as the man closed his eyes and rested his head on his hands. His breathing got a little slower, like he calmed down or something and he didn't move.

"Did he doze off?" Mulder asked.

"Colonel…" Riza called him in a low voice, but he didn't asnwer.

The Lieutenant put her hand on his shoulder and after a few seconds, he looked up, noticing they were all staring worriedly at him.

"What?"

"You dozed off." Lt. Hawkeye told him.

"Did I?" Roy asked, clearly confused.

"That's not dozing off." Scully said. "It's microsleep. Your brain automatically shuts down because you've been awake for too long."

"In other words I'm going crazy."

"No. Your brain is trying to avoid damage caused by sleep deprivation." Scully explained.

"Whatever…"

He rubbed his eyes with his left hand, since the right one was covered in bandages and felt his body weakening.

"So basically that bloody bastard is going to kill me and there's nothing I can do about it."

"We'll find a way." Riza said, trying to show confidence she didn't have at the moment.

"Just because Eriz said it's too late, doesn't mean there's no way. He was terrified and didn't want to answer all my questions." Mulder explained.

"Maybe if we find this guy from the picture, we can make him talk." Scully added.

"First, tie that amulet on your wrist… I don't know if it's good for anything, but at least it shouldn't harm you." Riza said, asking Mulder to hand her the string bracelet.

The Lieutenant sat on the couch by Col. Mustang's side and tied the bracelet around his wrist, being careful not to leave it too tight. She checked it to be sure it wouldn't slip from his wrist and Scully noticed her hands lingered on Roy's hand for a few seconds more than necessary.

The FBI agent had been wondering about what kind of relationship Roy and Riza had and now she could see it was something more than friendship. She sighed, feeling sad for them. They didn't deserve a tragic separation, but Scully knew that might happen soon. She remembered how she had felt when Mulder was the one in danger and wondered if the blond soldier was feeling the same.

"Did that phone company man introduce himself when he came to your apartment?" Scully asked, trying to focus on the case.

"I think he did, but there's no way I'm going to remember his name now. I find it easier to remember faces…" Roy answered.

"Maybe we could try hypnosis." Mulder suggested.

"I think it's too risky." Scully said immediately. "He hasn't been sleeping for days. There's no record of hypnosis ever being performed in a patient suffering from such severe sleep deprivation and we don't know in what other ways the spirit is affecting his brain. He might go into a coma."

"We don't even know if he used his real name." Riza added.

"You're right." Mulder agreed.

"Let's go to the headquarters and release this photograph." Colonel Mustang said, standing up. "Somebody might know where he lives."

Doing something about all that was the best way to gather the last of his strength, but no sooner than he finished saying that, Roy shut his eyes hard with a painful expression.

"Are you all right?" Riza asked.

"I have a horrible headache that's driving me insane…"

"Is that the spirit acting?"

"It might be just another symptom of lack of sleep." Scully considered.

"That symbol under his bed… if it's used to summon the spirit here, can't we just scratch it off?" The Lieutenant suggested.

"I guess we could…"

"If it were that simple, I think that Eriz would have told you…" Roy said.

"We've got nothing to lose…" Scully shrugged.

Riza went to the kitchen to get a knife, then back to Roy's bedroom and the others watched as she carefully and thoroughly scraped the ink off the wood.

"That will do it."

Colonel Mustang let out a yawn, not feeling any difference at all, but when he turned around to head back to the living room, he almost bumped into somebody.

"Get back!" He yelled to Mulder, Scully and Lt. Hawkeye.

"Is it here?"

"He's here…" Roy said, but this time didn't try to move away from the spirit nor attack him.

"_Hodina__… priyet… tee platit… tvoie… hurrish…" _The spirit said in his eerie voice.

If what Eriz had said was true, that spirit would kill him and there wasn't anything he could do about it. Roy just wished the others didn't get involved. He stood between the spirit and the others, hoping that if he couldn't protect himself, he could at least protect the others. The liejen dush stared at him and Roy stared back, studying it. The wound on the spirit's chest… Roy's stomach dropped as he noticed the burn marks on the skin around the exposed ribs. It was like that man had been hit by an explosion.

"Stay back."

"Colonel!"

"Lieutenant, I told you to stay back! It's me that he wants. I won't allow you to get involved." Roy insisted.

Differently from the last few days, he didn't sound tired or nervous. He had his usual tone of voice when he gave orders. No doubts, no fears, only determination. He faced the man in the bloody clothes, but the spirit didn't get any closer to him. He only gave him that evil smile he usually had and stood there, not moving.

Colonel Mustang thought it was weird, so he raised his left hand in the air, showing the amulet to the evil spirit. For a moment, the liejen dush's face showed hesitation and it took a step back.

"This thing really does work… He doesn't want to get closer to me." Roy told the others.

"Maybe there's still time." Scully said.

"Let's go." Roy ordered.

They left the apartment, but this time the spirit followed the Colonel from a certain distance. He wouldn't go away like before and Roy didn't have a good feeling about that. Anyway, he decided it would be better not to tell the others. Lieutenant Hawkeye looked serious as always, but he knew she was disturbed. He'd rather not worry her anymore.

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**A/N: **Muahahaha! Things are looking troublesome now... Well, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and leave a review with your opinion. I'm currently unemployed, so if I get depressed, the characters might be in danger... Huahuahua! Okay, enough of my BS. Thanks a lot for reading and see you next Friday!


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything… Wait! I own my own characters, the ones I created! A psychotic man and an old guy who stutters every time he's nervous. Yay… ¬¬'

I want to say thanks to ssadropout, Gamer AlchemistZ, Hina Kita and Toushirou-chan for sending me great reviews! =D

* * *

**Chapter 16**

When they finally arrived at the headquarters, it was late at night and not many people were there. Still, the Colonel had the authority to get everyone to work and he ordered that copies of the picture were made, so he could send them to the military police posts and stations all around the city.

"Perhaps we could publish this picture on the newspaper." A low-rank soldier suggested to the Colonel.

"No, we won't let this man know we're looking for him." Roy ordered immediately.

"Good one." Mulder said slightly impressed, after the soldier had left.

"Mr. Mulder, we may not be as well trained in crime investigation as the two of you, but do not underestimate us." Roy said hastily.

After all, when the time to act came, they were very good at taking control of the situation. The battlefield experience had taught them to keep their cool no matter what happened.

"Sorry if I ever did." Mulder said with a sheepish smile.

"Did the spirit appear again?" Scully asked in a low voice, so the other soldiers who weren't aware of the situation wouldn't listen.

"It hasn't gone away anymore." Roy said plainly, like it didn't mean much.

However, he knew that wasn't good at all and he too was worried.

"You still see it?" Lt. Hawkeye asked, not being able to hide her concern.

"He doesn't get any closer, but won't go away either."

Mulder stared at the corner of the office, to where the Colonel had gestured briefly when talking about the liejen dush, but he didn't see anything. There should be more about this spirit to know.

"Does he talk to you?"

Roy looked at the agent, feeling uncomfortable. Talking about something as uncanny as a ghost was hard for someone who didn't acknowledge the existence of spirits until less than two hours ago.

"Every now and then he repeats the same sentence, but it must be a foreign language. I don't know what it means." He finally told the agent, even tough he didn't think it would be relevant information.

"_Hodina priyet… tee platit tvoie… hurrish…" _The spirit said again.

"Oh, shut up…" Roy mumbled.

"Did he talk to you?" Mulder asked again, his curiosity betraying him.

"Yes, the same thing as always…"

Roy couldn't blame the man for being curious, but he couldn't believe that was happening. Not long ago he had considered Mulder to be a lunatic, and now he had found out that Mulder's crazy theory was right from the beginning. He wondered if that man had been in this situation before.

"Is he threatening you?" Lieutenant Hawkeye asked this time.

"No, he just keeps staring at me and smiling in a freaky way…"

It was very disturbing for the others to know an evil spirit was there, so close to them, especially because they couldn't see it. They all became quiet for a while so the Colonel could make a few phone calls, trying to calm down and not to let hesitation take control over them.

Meanwhile, in the other side of the city, Sengrat was sitting on a wooden stool, on his front yard, enjoying the night breeze. He lived in a small house in the outskirts of the city, where the police rarely showed up. The dirty gray walls matched perfectly the dry grass around the house. A garbage bag had been forgotten in front of the gate and dry leaves kept being blown by the wind, accumulating on the lawn.

Sengrat wasn't exactly the type of person that worried much about what their neighbors might think of them, otherwise he would sure clean up the place. He was just sitting there, looking at the stars in the night sky, when someone crossed the open gate and walked towards him.

"Good evening, Eriz." Sengrat greeted the old man with a shadow of a smile.

"Evening, Sengrat." Eriz replied sternly.

Eriz saw an empty wooden stool about a meter away and brought it close to Sengrat, so he could sit and talk. It was all silent that night and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Most people were already at home, having dinner with their families, but Sengrat and Eriz didn't have families of their own. Both of them lived alone.

"You know, I've been praying for your brother." Eriz said, taking off his hat.

"I appreciate it. It will help set his soul at ease."

"I don't know if he can actually rest, since so many people were killed because of him."

"Don't be stupid, Eriz. My brother didn't kill anyone. I did."

Sengrat's voice didn't express any regret.

"He was a good man." Eriz continued.

"I wanted to teach him black magic rituals. They can be used for protection, for controlling people, for everything. They'll give you unmatched powers. And yet, he refused to learn, saying it would upset the gods." Sengrat's voice took on a sad tone, as he wallowed in the memories from a time that would never come back.

"Wasn't it wise of him?" Eriz raised his eyes to look at him, the wrinkles on his face making him look older under the moon light.

"Maybe it was. I'm sure he went to heaven, a place where I won't ever set foot after all I did."

"Don't you regret it?"

Sengrat got a lighter and started fiddling with it.

"No. My brother was killed by an Amestrian soldier. One dumb son of a bitch, who caught him performing a white magic ritual to summon protection for a sick child and shot him!"

Sengrat's voice became progressively louder until he finished his sentence, with anger glowing in his eyes. Those were the eyes of a man who wasn't guided by principles anymore.

"He was probably scared. It's difficult not to be scared if you find someone performing a weird ritual as the one he was performing."

"So that's the answer? You don't know what someone is doing so you shoot them dead instead of asking?" Sengrat asked hastily.

"It was wrong, I agree. But he was the first you killed, wasn't he? Why kill more? Why keep killing?" Eriz asked, trying to get the man to be rational again.

"The military are all the same. I can't kill them all, but the more I kill, the more deaths of innocent people can be prevented." Sengrat explained.

Eriz sighed. Sengrat spoke with determination, not able to recognize how his own logic was completely distorted and Eriz wasn't able to recognize him anymore.

"Shouldn't you stop before you get caught? I think you avenged your brother already." He pleaded.

"No, I won't stop now. They won't get me."

Sengrat lit up a cigarette and started blowing smoke in the air. Eriz coughed and moved his stool to the other side to get away from the smoke.

"Do you know anything about the person your liejen dush is going to kill now?" Eriz asked again, trying to sound somewhat friendly.

Sengrat held the cigarette in the air for a moment, staring at him quizzically. He then laughed and blew more smoke up in the air.

"He's a soldier who fought in that Ishbal war. A state alchemist." He said proudly.

"Important guy… Will it take long?"

"No, it shouldn't. I was hanging around the headquarters these days and I saw him. Maybe he'll kill himself and spare my little toy the trouble."

"Little toy? How can you call it like this? It will be mad at you! Summoning a liejen dush isn't a child's game!"

"Don't worry." He said dismissively.

"And after him, who's next?"

"This guy is currently responsible for the investigation. I'm taking down one of his subordinates as soon as he kicks the bucket. Too bad, she's cute. I like blonde women, but she's smart and I don't want her around."

"You really should stop, Sengrat. Not everything is lost. If you stop killing people and try to do good things, the gods may forgive your sins one day."

"I'm not interested in forgiveness. What's wrong with you, Eriz? Seems like you don't support me."

Eriz suppressed his fear and repeated to himself that he was just talking to his friend.

"I'm on your side, we're from the same people, we're family! How can you even say such a thing?"

"You're right. But you sound different, you know… Is there anything you want to tell me?" Sengrat asked and gave him an inquisitive look.

"No, Sengrat. Nothing."

"You didn't investigate my victims' lives again, did you?"

Eriz shook his head. He had actually done that before, in order to learn more about some of the victims' lives and try to tell Sengrat that they were good people and didn't deserve to die. Sengrat didn't really care for his judgment. Eriz watched as a leaf was blown by the wind, from one side of the yard to the other, until it got caught in the fence. He believed that as there weren't many of his people left in that country, they were really like family. He wanted Sengrat to come to his senses and stop this madness.

"I have to go now. Have a good night." Eriz said and stood up.

"Good night."

The old man walked down the block, stopped and turned back before walking around the corner. He stared at Sengrat's house for a few seconds, feeling relieved to be finally far from him again.

"_I'm sorry Sengrat. I can't go down this path you've chosen. You have to stop."_

He went on walking, farther and farther. In his mind, he wasn't just walking away from that house, but from a long time friend. That had been his last attempt to bring Sengrat back from the darkness he had involved himself in. There was no going back now. Sengrat would kill him if he knew of his betrayal and he would do everything possible to stop Sengrat, even if it meant killing him.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Colonel Mustang, Lieutenant Hawkeye, Mulder and Scully left the office to go by car to the police stations and make sure they had gotten the picture of Sengrat. The liejen dush kept following the Colonel from a certain distance.

"Is he in the car?" Mulder asked.

"No… He's… floating on the air, right behind the car…" The Colonel said, looking through the window.

"Like flying?"

"Whatever… I still feel tempted to believe I'm simply going insane." Roy mumbled, fighting to be awake and alert.

"Hang in there, Colonel." Riza said, without taking her eyes off the road.

They were going by where the Lieutenant lived when she saw something and stopped the car in front of her place.

"What is it?" Roy asked.

"That man…" Riza said, looking at the entrance of her own building, where Eriz was standing.

The others watched as she got off the car and walked towards him.

"Hi, g-good evening miss." Eriz greeted her sheepishly.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you… Please, don't p-point your gu-gun at me…"

"What is it?" Riza sounded angry and Eriz couldn't stop thinking about the gun she had.

"I thought you'd like to know… The next target…"

"How do you know the next target?" Riza asked in a firm voice, ignoring Eriz's request and pointing her gun at the man's face.

"Oh, c-c-c-crap… Miss… I really d-don't like guns…" He said, his face turning white.

"Then answer my question."

"I've bee- Wait!"

Eriz looked behind her. Col. Mustang and agents Mulder and Scully had gotten off the car as well and came to join them.

"Oh, no! Oh, no! Oh, no!" Eriz said repeatedly. His legs started shaking and whatever color he still had on his face faded away.

"What?"

"Why are you here? Why is it following you?" Eriz asked horrified, staring at something about 3 meters away from the Colonel.

Roy noticed he was staring right at the spirit.

"Can you see him?" He asked.

"Of course I can! And it can see me too, damn it!" Eriz yelled.

The liejen dush moved in Eriz's direction and stood in front of him. Roy watched as the spirit just stared at the old man. Tears came down Eriz's cheeks and he contorted his lips in agony, making great effort not to collapse. Right in front of him, he could see a little boy with short blond hair.

"_Jeket sahrlavat, otah?_" The boy asked, staring blankly at him.

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**A/N: **Hello people! I hope this chapter wasn't boring. Personally, I'm a bit nervous when I have to write long parts with characters of my own. Anyway, this part just had to be written. My inspiration fairy hit me on the head with a brick and I just HAD to write it. Hehehehehe! Well, that's it for today. Thanks a lot for reading and please leave a review if you have the time. Next Friday, new chapter! See you then! =D


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: **Here we go again… No, I don't own anything!

I want to say thanks to Gamer AlchemistZ, Toushirou-chan, ssadropout, mebh, StarCatcher 1858, Hina Kita and rizasakura for your awesome reviews!

N/A: I'm sorry that the chapter is late… I had a family emergency and couldn't post it yesterday.

* * *

**Chapter 17**

Eriz was still standing there, legs shaking like he was about to collapse at any moment. Roy couldn't understand. He could see the man covered in blood standing right in front of him and Eriz was crying and shaking, but not moving.

"Oh please, don't do this to me…" Eriz pleaded in despair.

"Get away from him, you idiot!" Roy yelled.

"It won't kill me." Eriz said, trying to look away from the boy he saw in front of him. "It still hasn't finished its task."

"What is going on?" Scully asked.

Eriz closed his eyes and clenched his fists. When he spoke again, his voice was interrupted a few times by low sobs.

"Mr. Mustang… I have a very important question for you."

"What is it?"

"The spirit. What does it look like?"

"Can't you see him? He's standing right in front of you!" The Colonel yelled.

"I'm afraid what I see and you see are two different things." Eriz explained with an eerie tone.

Roy glanced at the Lieutenant by his side for a moment. He hated talking about this. It sounded like his nightmares had become real and had come to haunt him.

"I see a man, a soldier… His clothes are all torn apart and he's got a wound on his chest, apparently a burn, maybe from an explosion." Roy finally answered.

"As I thought… I don't see any soldier. I actually see a little boy…"

Eriz's legs couldn't support his weight any longer and he fell to the ground. For a moment, everyone thought he was going to faint, but he didn't. People around started looking at them and Riza took Eriz, her boss and the two FBI agents to her apartment, where they could talk.

Hayate, her dog, came to greet her as soon as she opened the door. He was going to jump at the Colonel, since he was already familiar with the man, but suddenly stepped back and started growling at the spirit. They all walked in and the Lieutenant closed the door, despite she felt uneasy by bringing the spirit into her home. There they could talk without being interrupted and not letting anyone hear them and that was very important now.

Eriz managed to calm down and stop crying. He gathered the last of his energies, knowing that they had to address this problem immediately. They had no time to waste.

"Does the soldier you see talk to you?" Eriz asked Roy again.

"Yes, but I don't understand what he says. He keeps repeating the same thing over and over."

"What does he say? What does it sound like?"

"Something like… hodeena preet plat… damn… teevou hush… no… It wasn't that… Teevoee hurri…"

It was hard to remember exactly how it sounded.

"Hodina priyet tee platit tvoie hurrish?" Eriz asked.

"Yes, that's right."

"To me he said something totally different."

"Do you know what it means?"

Eriz nodded.

"These words mean 'time for you to pay for your sins'."

"My sins in the war… As a human weapon…"

Roy looked very disturbed at the spirit. The wound on the spirit's chest could be his signature after all. A ghost he had created, now summoned by another man to kill him. Could that be?

"What did he tell you?" Mulder asked Eriz.

"Let's play, dad." Eriz suppressed more tears.

"Dad?"

"Damn Sengrat… I knew he was doing some really bad magic, but I never thought he would go this far…" Eriz complained.

The Urbasan started walking around in circles nervously, trying to avoid the gaze from the little boy he saw, standing near the Colonel. He was trying hard to get his thoughts straight, but the spirits eyes could almost pierce through him.

"Sengrat? Is that the man's name?" Riza asked.

"Yes. I can't hide from him anymore. The liejen dush saw me, which means Sengrat already knows I've betrayed him."

"Eriz, do you know him?" Mulder asked.

"I do. He was a good friend, but I can't be friends with someone who committed so many sins and refuses to stop." Eriz replied, still walking around the room, impatiently.

"When you said you didn't know he would go this far…" Scully started to say.

Eriz stopped walking. He rubbed his forehead with his both hands and turned to them, as he had something very complicated to explain, but not much time to do so.

"There are spirits on earth."

"Ghosts?" Mulder asked.

"Ghosts are what we call earth-bound spirits. They're people who died and for some reason got stuck on the living world, without moving on. They can be easily controlled if you know how. They are what we call liejen dush. However, we don't see the same thing here. What I see is merely a representation of my worst sin and the Colonel sees the representation of his own worst sins. If any of you could see it too, it would appear different to each of you. That's not a ghost. It's a free spirit."

Mustang, Hawkeye, Scully and Mulder couldn't be more confused, so Eriz continued.

"A real liejen dush wouldn't have different appearances. We would see the same person, the ghost, not a representation of our sins. Oh, damn… To think Sengrat had the guts to bind a free spirit to earth and control it… It's the ultimate offense to the gods!"

"What is a free spirit? Is it like a holy person who died?" Mulder asked.

"A free spirit was never a person to begin with!" Eriz started yelling, like the comparison had offended his beliefs. "They're different beings! They're powerful, holy entities! I know some other cultures talk about angels. They're kind of like angels… yes, similar to what you call angels."

Roy stared again at the spirit, finally knowing what the hell that creature was, but not relieved at all. Perhaps going crazy was better then having some powerful, supernatural entity after his life. Riza couldn't avoid looking in the same direction her boss did, even though she couldn't see anything. Mulder just raised his eyebrows, while Scully, who had always been a religious person, opened her mouth to speak but forgot what she was going to say. The idea of someone summoning an angel or anything like it to kill people was quite a shock for her. Hayate's uninterrupted growling didn't really help anyone calm down.

"Are you wearing the amulet?" Eriz asked the Colonel, now finally in a normal tone of voice.

Roy raised his arm to show the string amulet tied around his wrist.

"Don't lose it. If the spirit won't go away anymore, it's because it's ready to kill you." Eriz explained.

"How long do we have?" Lt. Hawkeye asked.

"When did it start following you all the time?"

"About two hours ago…" Roy answered, now thinking that it was exactly after Riza scratched off the symbol on the bed frame.

"That's weird, actually. I thought you had one or two more days before the spirit freed itself." Eriz said, confused.

"What do you mean free itself?"

"Sengrat draws a symbol under his victims' beds. He uses a special ink that's been treated with different magic rituals. With this, he summons the earth-bound spirit. It will be trapped in the symbol and as the magic fades away, it comes to haunt his victims, not letting them sleep, draining their energy, making them anxious and paranoid, even hurting them when it gets strong enough. When the magic that traps it in the symbol fades away completely, the spirit is free to kill its victim."

Eriz couldn't help but notice that at the first half of his explanation, nobody seemed surprised, like they already knew about the symbols and the spirit. However, when he finished his explanation everyone looked shocked, especially Riza.

"What did I do?" Riza said in a low voice, looking down. Eriz saw that her hands were shaking and then he understood.

"Please, tell me you didn't damage that symbol…"

"I scraped it off…"

"We all agreed to t-" Roy started to say.

"Damn, I can't believe you did that! That's the problem with you people! Messing up with things you don't understand! That attitude is what caused all this to begin with!" Eriz started yelling.

"Now stop it!"

Roy's authoritative tone of voice when he took a step forward and stood between Riza and Eriz was enough to make the Urbasan quiet and even intimidated.

"Eriz." Scully called, and the others turned to her. "You said the symbol is used to summon an earth-bound spirit, but Sengrat summoned a free-spirit."

"That's right. He bound a free-spirit to earth, in order to be able to control it like it were a liejen dush and then summoned it to kill people."

"We have to kill that bastard before he summons it to kill someone else. You said you knew who the next victim was." Roy said.

"Yes, but now he knows I've betrayed him… He p-p-probably will come after me first." Eriz said, looking more nervous than never.

"But if you don't let him inside your house…" Mulder started to say, but didn't finish his sentence.

Eriz laughed ironically at the idea.

"Do you really think a powerful man who can use all kinds of black magic and commits such an outrageous sin has only one way of killing people? He only uses the spirit because he doesn't want to call other people's attention! I'll be killed very soon and I don't ev-even know what will kill me, nor how…"

"This means we're next. You're helping us." Mulder said in a surprisingly calm way, considering the situation.

Eriz agreed with him and explained how Sengrat had planned to kill Lieutenant Hawkeye next, but now they were all in danger, unless they killed Sengrat first.

"We'll kill him." Roy said. "I'll burn that bastard to a crisp. How much time do I have?"

"A few hours. You should be protected for tonight, but I don't know if you'll make it until sunrise. I'm sorry, but even if we kill Sengrat before that, the spirit will have to finish the task it's been assigned. It's been bound to earth and it's not free to decide on the matter."

"I'm aware."

Eriz looked at him in the eyes. He had to admit a man who could face death and still worry about other people around him deserved his respect. Eriz himself would never be so cool-headed.

"I'll go with you. I have nothing to lose." Eriz finally said.

Riza got another couple of guns for Mulder and Scully and her rifle. They were ready to leave for their final battle, when Roy halted by the door.

"Go ahead. Lieutenant, I want to talk to you for a moment."

"We don't have much time, talk in the car!" Eriz said.

Roy didn't even have to say anything. Just the look on his face was enough to make Eriz regret having said that. Mulder and Scully walked down the stairs, followed closely by the old man.

"What is it?" Riza asked, even though she had an idea of what he wanted to say.

Colonel Mustang hated to see her like that, scared and disoriented. His Lieutenant was always so serious and determined, but now she avoided looking straight at him and kept fingering the gun she had, searching for comfort that gun couldn't provide. A gun was something that usually gave her a feeling of safety. She was used to dealing with dangerous people, but a spirit wasn't something you could just kill with a bullet to the head. And Roy… Was that really it? Couldn't they do anything? Would they just have to watch him die?

"All this wasn't your fault, all right? Even if you hadn't touched the symbol, seems like I'm going to… be killed anyway. You heard Eriz." Roy managed to say.

Riza tried hard not to cry. She had to be strong for him. They had been through a lot before and she knew he always expected her to be strong. If there was a way of saving him, she would do anything, but if Eriz was right, he would die and the idea was just unbearable. Would it at least be quick? How would the spirit do it? Her stomach somersaulted at such thoughts and she tried to suppress them as it was too painful to even imagine it.

Roy too was having a hard time dealing with it. He didn't know exactly when that was going happen and all he could think of was that he would have to ask Mulder and Scully not to allow Riza to be with him when the time came. He didn't want her to watch him die. However, these were thoughts that he wouldn't share with her. Not now. He had other things to tell her.

"I'll say this now because I may not have enough time later." Roy started. "Don't give up, Lieutenant. You have all your life ahead of you and if you don't have a loser like me to take care of, I'm sure you'll find someone, start a family, and move on with your life."

"I don't want any of that, I want you, you idiot." Riza said hastily.

A tear came down her face, followed by another. It was useless to try to control herself now. She leaned against Roy's shoulder, hiding her face on his military jacket as she cried.

"I know…"

Roy embraced her tight for a few seconds, trying to understand his own feelings. All his dreams… if he were to die that night, all he had fought for would have been in vain. And still, at that exact moment, what upset him the most was Riza, inconsolably crying on his shoulder. He knew her since she was a teenager. They had been through so much together. She had done so much for him and he had trusted her more than anybody else. Of all people in the world, she was the one who understood and cared about him the most.

He gently pulled away from her to look in her eyes.

"I love you."

The words came out of his mouth before he could think and so naturally that he was surprised. During all the years they had worked together, they had avoided getting involved because of their work, hiding their feelings, even though what they had went way beyond friendship.

Roy wiped the tears from her face with his thumb, his hands gently placed on each side of her head so she would look at him in the eyes. They were so close they could hear each other's breathing. Roy leaned forward only a bit, and for a moment he thought she might step away from him and his inappropriate behavior, but she didn't. He kissed her lips gently, bringing her closer to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and sunk into that kiss. Roy felt her fingers slowly threading through his hair and all he could think of was why the hell he hadn't kissed her before.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, we're all thinking the same thing now… hahaha! I hope you liked the romantic scene. It was a little depressive, I know… Well, I won't write much here because I'm very tired tonight. Thank you very much for reading and please leave a review if you have the time!


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: **Arakawa and Chris Carter are the brilliant minds, not me.

I want to say thanks to Gamer AlchemistZ, rizasakura, ssadropout, Toushirou-chan, mebh and Hina Kita for your wonderful reviews!

Also, if you guys are interested, I posted a quick oneshot I wrote these days. It has nothing to do with this story, but the inspiration fairy hit me on the head with a brick and I had to write it. hehehe! It's called Office Romance.

* * *

**Chapter 18**

Roy and Riza finally got back to the car where Eriz and the FBI agents were already waiting in the back seat.

"Come on, we have to be fast!" Eriz yelled from the window.

"Where exactly are we going?" Riza asked, getting in and starting the car.

Eriz explained to her how to get to Sengrat's house, although there was no way to know if Sengrat would be there or not. If he weren't, there was one more place where they were likely to find him, but Eriz thought they should try the house first.

"When we get there, shoot him first and ask questions later." The Urbasan said. "Otherwise he'll kill us for sure."

"Right." Mustang and Hawkeye agreed, although Mulder and Scully were a little uncertain about that. Of course they wouldn't hesitate and would shoot the man if they needed, but they'd rather arrest him.

Lt. Hawkeye drove to Sengrat's house as fast as she could drive without running the risk of causing an accident. When they all got off the car to check the house, the lights were off and there was no sign of anyone. Even so they checked every room in the house since the doors weren't locked, but didn't find anybody.

"Well, if he's not here, there's this one more place we can try." Eriz said as Riza started the car again.

"And where is it?"

"An ancient Urbasan temple outside the city." Eriz explained. "It's abandoned because most of my people left to other countries decades ago, but for some reason it was considered an interesting tourist attraction and the place wasn't demolished."

"And why do you think he's going to be there?" Scully asked.

"I've heard all kinds of rumors lately. Rumors saying that the place is haunted and people won't get near it anymore. I'm pretty sure it's where Sengrat summons the spirits. He probably bound the free spirit there, too."

"So his black magic could be what's been scaring people?" Mulder asked.

"Probably. We don't know what he's b-b-been doing there."

Mulder had already noticed that Eriz stuttered every time he got nervous. The old man seemed to be very frightened by the idea of going there and finding out what the hell Sengrat had been up to, apart from summoning the free spirit.

"Eriz."

Eriz leaned forward on the seat when he heard the Lieutenant call his name.

"What is it?"

"You said Sengrat bound the free spirit to earth in there."

"Probably. Why?"

"Would he need symbols for that?"

Mulder, Scully and Mustang all seemed to have caught her train of thought, because they all turned to Eriz in mute expectation.

"Yes, he would."

"If we destroyed that symbol, what would happen? Would we set the spirit free again?"

"I believe so, yes. Wait…" The old man said, with a look on his face that suggested he was considering the idea.

"Do you think that the spirit would let the Colonel live if we set him free?" Mulder asked.

"Eyes on the road!" Eriz yelled to Riza, who had turned to look at him.

There were no cars on the street and she had control over the car. In another situation she could have been offended by his reaction, but now Riza wasn't worried about that at all.

"Do you think it would leave him alone, Eriz?" She insisted, looking back at the road ahead.

Eriz seemed confused. He didn't know much about the kind of magic Sengrat used and didn't even want to know. Those were things he believed people were not supposed to mess with.

"Maybe."

"Why maybe? Once it's free, why would it k-" Scully started saying, but Eriz interrupted her.

"It's hard to say what would happen. I mean, the spirit is probably angry after being manipulated like that and it knows all about the Colonel's life and sins, otherwise it couldn't have turned into a soldier to haunt him."

"But it would be worth trying…" Mulder said.

"The way things are going, _anything_ would be worth trying…" Eriz said in a worried tone.

"That is if we can find the symbol there." Roy added.

He knew chances weren't good, so he didn't want to give anyone false hopes. Still, he paid close attention to Eriz's words. If there was a way of surviving this whole situation, he would. He still had too many things to do and people who needed him. He looked at Riza, knowing that she always did her best to be strong for him. He now needed to be strong for her. He looked back at the road, feeling his body tense up and then relax a bit.

"Did he fall asleep?" Eriz asked, a few seconds later, staring at Roy, who had closed his eyes. "How can he sleep in such a situation?"

"It's a kind of temporary brain-shut-down." Scully explained.

About ten seconds after she said so, Roy opened his eyes and kept staring at the road, completely unaware that he had dozed off for a few moments. Mulder, Scully and Eriz exchanged worried looks in the back seat, but decided there was no point in telling Mustang about that since he clearly didn't have any control over his microsleep.

"Colonel, do you have extra gloves?" Riza asked him.

"I always carry an extra pair." He said.

"Good."

Mulder and Scully were puzzled. Considering the short time they had, they decided not to ask for explanations about that. They took the road that led to another city and the farther they got from the city center, the less houses and lights they saw. Soon there were almost no lights and only very few houses. The silent darkness gave out an eerie feeling, like there was more there than they could see.

"There." Eriz said, pointing at a hill on the left, where they could barely distinguish a conic tower. Riza kept driving down the road and they got closer and closer, until they could see the whole temple. There was a faint light coming from the windows and the doors seemed to be open.

"That's it. He's t-there." Eriz said, feeling his courage fade away again.

"Let's not park too close or he will hear the engine." The Colonel ordered and Riza obeyed, stopping on the small dirt road that led to the Urbasan temple.

They walked quietly in the dark, hoping to be able to get in the temple unnoticed. When they stopped close to the door outside the temple, a loud voice came from inside, making it clear that their attempt had been frustrated.

"Welcome to my house, my dear friends!"

"Damn it…"

"Let's take him down." Roy ordered.

Lt. Hawkeye and the FBI agents grabbed their guns, while Eriz grabbed a piece of string tied to a couple of colorful beads and held it tight like it were the only thing that could protect him.

Sengrat was sitting in the altar with an evil expression on his face. He seemed to be enjoying the whole situation. The temple was all made of stone, and there was a small altar, with a stone chair on which he was sitting, two tables for offerings and religious statues covering the back wall. A big candelabrum was hanging from the ceiling in front of the altar, but most of the light in the temple came from the candle lamps on the side walls. The church was big and wooden benches were still in place, one after the other, ready to accommodate people in the Urbasan temple.

Sengrat barely moved when the soldiers, the FBI agents and his old friend came in. Mulder, Scully and Lieutenant Hawkeye pointed their guns at him at the same time Roy prepared to snap his fingers. Sengrat should be at least worried. However, he knew he had no reason to be. Loud whispering voices invaded the temple coming from everywhere, getting mixed in a disturbed way and the group was suddenly attacked by something, although they couldn't see what it was.

A gun was fired and the bullet ended up in the stone wall, meters away from Sengrat. Riza had managed to shoot, but something shoved her and the shot went in the wrong direction. Mulder and Scully, on the other hand, didn't even have the chance to fire their guns. They were pushed so hard by invisible forces that Mulder fell to the floor still holding his gun and Scully dropped hers. Roy took a couple of steps quickly and prepared to attack Sengrat using alchemy. The whispering voices got louder around him and suddenly something hit him on the head.

Roy tried not to lose balance, but again, an invisible force hit him and everything started shaking. The glass windows burst, spreading broken glass all over the place. If it were an earthquake, they wouldn't know the difference. The wooden benches, the stone tables displayed beside the main corridor, the candle lamps, even the floor started shaking, while the whispering voices started getting louder and faster. It was as though hundreds of people were speaking at the same time, although the voices sounded like they weren't human at all. A vase on one of the stone tables burst suddenly and the water that was inside it was spilled on the floor. A terrible cracking sound was heard and the three chains holding the big candelabrum, the one hanging from the ceiling, started to break, one by one, until the heavy silver candelabrum fell noisily in the middle of the corridor, bringing lots of dust and spider webs with it.

"So you came here to kill me? Now that's rude…" Sengrat said, laughing at their desperate attempts to stand up, as everything underneath their feet and around them was shaking. "I guess I'm gonna have to ask my toys to kill you…"

Pieces of the broken vase were lifted in the air and thrown against the invaders, followed by wooden benches that were suddenly dragged violently by the spirits Sengrat controlled. Mulder tried to shoot Sengrat, but a bench was pushed towards him and he rolled over it, falling face down on the floor. A piece of broken glass hit Scully on her forehead, cutting her skin. The gun she was trying to recover was pulled away abruptly and disappeared somewhere in the shadows. Eriz now held the amulet he had on his hand pronouncing words in a foreign language, but something shoved him and he fell, his head bouncing against the wall before he lost consciousness.

Riza still had her gun, but couldn't aim at Sengrat as the floor under her feet wouldn't stop trembling. She saw she wouldn't be able to do anything that way and tried to run down the corridor to get closer to Sengrat. Suddenly, something grabbed the back of her coat and pushed her forward, dragging her fast and throwing her unceremoniously over a pile of benches. The whispering voices turned into wicked laughs as she tried to ignore the pain and recover from the attack.

"Damn it, you bastard…" Roy said, managing to stand up after having been hit more than once by whatever entities Sengrat had control of. "Shut up!" He yelled, as he could hear so many voices around him he was starting to feel dizzy.

He just wanted them to shut the hell up. His head was about to explode and his whole body ached, exhausted by the sleep deprivation. Roy took a step forward and stared at Sengrat. There was nothing that could block his flame alchemy now.

"Huh, the alchemist wants to kill me…" Sengrat said, with an interested look.

Different objects were lifted up in the air. Roy prepared to attack, but when he snapped his fingers, he felt a sharp pain on the back of his right hand and nothing happened. A piece of glass had cut the glove right where his alchemy symbol was. Other pieces of glass picked up from the floor started flying around, scratching his gloves and arms. A particularly bigger piece of glass was tossed and Roy felt a shallow cut on his wrist. The string bracelet, the only thing that kept the free spirit from killing him, fell to the floor.

"Uh-oh…" Sengrat said loudly. He was still sitting there, in the stone chair in the altar, enjoying the scene as it was part of a particularly interesting theater play.

Suddenly, all the noise stopped. The voices calmed down and the objects that were still flying around were dropped all at the same time. Whatever was coming couldn't be good. The soldier covered in blood, the spirit that had been haunting Roy for days, appeared right in front of him. Roy took a couple of steps back, but he knew he couldn't run away from that entity. The free spirit wanted his life. Roy looked at the spirits' hands and saw that it was carrying a long chain from the candelabrum.

"_Hodina priyet tee platit tvoie hurrish!" _The spirit said again. In a swift movement, the spirit wrapped the chain around his neck, while holding the two ends of it.

"He's gonna strangle him!" Mulder yelled, looking around for a symbol that could have been used to bind the free spirit to earth. They couldn't see the spirit, but when they saw the Colonel being lifted up in the air and the agonic look on his face as he tossed and kicked, they all could easily understand what was going on.

Like a small tornado had formed inside the temple, a circling strong wind started to blow from the middle of the church, dragging everything and everyone away from where the free spirit stood, trying to finally finish the task it had been assigned just a few days ago.

Roy couldn't see what was happening around him, but he could hear the others screaming and the noise of the wind trashing the place. He gasped for air, but couldn't breathe. His chest wall hurt in the effort but no oxygen could make its way with the chain around his neck. He knew he wouldn't be able to breathe but his instincts took control as his body clung to life. Panic struck him and he tried harder to kick and punch the spirit, in a last burst of energy, with the adrenaline running loose in his blood. He could hear Sengrat's laughter, but couldn't attack him. Everything around him started to get darker, as he felt his body weakening. He stopped fighting, once his arms and legs started getting numb. The pressure on his neck got higher, making him face the ceiling. That stone ceiling with the red drawings, only a few of meters away from him, would probably be the last thing he would see.

The drawings… Roy felt the last of his energies fading away, but something called his attention. There was a symbol drawn in red ink on the ceiling. Now that he was facing it, he could see it clearly. His gloves had been torn apart, but he had an extra pair in his pocket…

Sengrat's smile disappeared when he saw a column of fire light up in the middle of the temple. The fire hit the ceiling and something there started to burn wildly. The ink used in the symbol Sengrat had drawn to bind the free spirit to earth and control it was on fire.

"You didn't… you miserable son of a bitch…" Sengrat said, standing up. For the first time since the group had entered the church, he was afraid. The fire finally went out on its own after destroying the symbol and Colonel Mustang fell to the floor, not moving. The wind that had trashed the church stopped.

Scully was on the other side of the church with Mulder. Both had gotten hurt after being thrown against the walls and could barely move. Riza was close to the altar, but trapped among wooden pieces of broken furniture and Eriz, who had been knocked down, was just recovering consciousness.

Right in the middle of the church, there was a man, in a blue military uniform. Riza was still struggling to get out of the pile of broken benches and tables, when she froze, very surprised. Francis Bennet, the first of Sengrat's victims, was standing right in front of them. He had what apparently was a broomstick stuck in his abdomen and his clothes were all bloody around the wound. This time, they all could see the free-spirit clearly and there was anger in its gaze.

"_Beit nih_ _ma hodina o semith_…" It hissed.

Sengrat was just paralyzed. He didn't try to run nor do anything. He knew he couldn't escape. The spirit took a step towards him, making him shiver and his blood go cold. Mulder, Scully and Riza watched speechlessly as Francis Bennet turned into Johen Hewitt, the second victim, in less than a second.

"That's the free spirit?"

"_Beit nih_ _ma hodina o semith_…"

Johen Hewitt then turned into Joanne Culver, who had supposedly fallen on the train tracks and been run over by the train. They could see the damage caused to her body by the collision. Blood covered her from head to toe.

"_Beit nih_ _ma hodina o semith_…"

It didn't stay like Joanne Culver for long. In a matter of three seconds it assumed the form of Elias Lockheed, who had a deep cut on his throat, then the next victim and the next, as it kept repeating the same sentence and slowly walking towards Sengrat.

"Sengrat's sins…" Eriz said. "He's dead. There's nothing he can do anymore…"

Riza managed to stand up, holding her gun but not pointing it at anyone. Right in front of her, only about one meter away, was now Tom Carter, the most recent victim, the sergeant who had drowned in the bathtub, but he wasn't looking at her. He was staring angrily at Sengrat, who was so scared that he fell back on the chair he had been sitting before. Tom Carter was all wet and his face was white and wrinkled like he had been underwater for too long. He took another step and his appearance changed once more. The same blue military uniform and about the same height, but his gray wavy hair quickly turned into black straight hair and his blue eyes turned black.

"_Beit nih se hodina o semith." _

The spirit had turned into Colonel Mustang.

* * *

A/N: Cliffhanger! Muahahaha! This is one of the first scenes I imagined and as I love writing action (and cliffhangers) it was one of my favorites to write. As you can see, the next chapter will be the last. If you have the time, please leave a review. Thanks to everybody who's reading and reviewing and see you next Friday!


	19. Chapter 19

**Disclaimer: **Do I have to say it again? All right… FMA belongs to the cow and The X Files belongs to Chris Carter. I don't own anything.

I want to say thanks to ssadropout, Gamer AlchemistZ, Hina Kita and Toushirou-chan for your great reviews!

* * *

**Chapter 19**

Now the whole situation had changed. Sengrat was shaking in fear and kept staring at the free spirit, unable to move. The spirit had reddish marks on his neck that resembled marks from a chain and it looked exactly like Colonel Mustang. It didn't change its appearance anymore. Instead, it looked to the side, to Riza, and raised a hand towards her. The Lieutenant took a step back, intimidated by the look on the spirits' face. It was like it carried a lot of anger in those eyes. She pointed her gun at the spirit, but the gun just slipped from her hand in less than a split-second, ending up in the spirit's hand like it had been pulled by a magnet.

Mulder, Scully and Riza didn't move. Eriz was still trying to stand up after being knocked out, but could see what was going on. For a moment, they all thought the spirit would shoot the Lieutenant, since it had taken her gun. However, it just turned to face Sengrat. A single shot was heard. Sengrat fell from the stone chair and blood streamed slowly from his chest, forming a red puddle around him. His face was frozen in an expression of fear. The spirit lowered the gun and walked towards Lt. Hawkeye.

Riza froze. Fighting against that powerful entity seemed to be useless. If it wanted to kill her, she wouldn't stand a chance. However, the worst thing now was to be killed by some creature that looked exactly like the man she loved.

"_Hecruý." _The spirit said and handed her the gun slowly.

Lt. Hawkeye got the gun back, very surprised. Suddenly, the anger in the spirits eyes had disappeared.

"Why did you…" She started to say, but the spirit just faded away, ignoring her words.

"We're saved…" Eriz said, finally up on his feet and trying not to look at the dead body on the altar. He knew it was the only way to put an end to everything, but he still thought he would miss his friend.

"Colonel!" The Lieutenant recovered from the shock and ran back to the man, who was still lying on the floor.

Mulder and Scully also recovered from the impact and, even though their wounds hurt badly, they ran to him as well. Scully immediately put her fingers on the side of his neck, hoping to get something.

"I can't get a pulse. I'm going to start CPR." She said in her professional way, before asking Riza for help and starting chest compressions.

Scully was quiet for a minute, just repeating the compressions and asking Lt. Hawkeye to breathe for him. However, she knew chances weren't good.

"This is bad. He's been deprived of oxygen for at least three minutes already." Scully explained, without stopping compressions. "We don't have proper equipment here, no IV fluids, no oxygen, nothing. I'm afraid we won't be able to get his heart to start beating again in this situation." She went on, trying to prepare everyone for the inevitable.

Eriz was standing by their side, with his mind miles away from there, but Scully's words brought him back to reality.

"Don't stop yet!" The old man yelled, kneeling next to the Colonel. "Leave it to me, but don't stop."

"I won't stop yet, I'm just saying that due to the circumstances, it's very unlikely that…"

Scully interrupted her explanation since Eriz wasn't paying attention. All that wouldn't change a thing, it would only make it more difficult for the Lieutenant to accept it, and she was worried about her. Although the FBI agent was convinced that Eriz couldn't help him, she decided to give him a chance. Eriz got another amulet made of strings and beads and started praying in a foreign language, pronouncing strange words in a loud voice.

Scully's arms started to ache already. Another 5 minutes had passed and Eriz had increased the volume of his voice gradually to the point where he was almost yelling. Mulder watched Eriz with his scientific curiosity. The old man's eyes were almost closed and moving repeatedly in a rhythmic pattern, like he was having some sort of seizure. Suddenly Eriz stopped praying, pushed Scully to the side hastily and raised his right hand in the air. Before they could understand what he intended to do, the Urbasan punched the Colonel's chest with all his strength.

Nobody was expecting him to do that, but they didn't have time to complain. The man they thought was already dead suddenly jerked, gasping for air.

"Colonel!"

It took Roy a moment to talk again, as he was breathing too fast to say anything. He tried to sit up, but Riza didn't let him.

"Lie down, Colonel. Everything is all right." The Lieutenant said in relief.

For the last few minutes, the Lieutenant had felt like the time had just stopped and everything was lost. Her Colonel awake again, breathing and staring confused at them was the only thing she could wish for now.

"What happened?" Roy asked, looking a little disoriented.

"The spirit dropped you and killed Sengrat." Mulder explained. "That fire… Was that you?"

"I saw something… a symbol… on the ceiling… so I burned it." He told them, still pausing to breathe.

"Sengrat said he's an alchemist… was that alchemy?" Mulder asked Riza with an almost childish grin on his face.

"Yes." She said, already familiar with that look Mulder had every time he discovered something interesting.

"Okay, let's get him to a hospital." Scully ordered.

The idea of alchemy was very interesting, but she had to focus on the main problem now and that was keeping the man alive. He still needed medical care.

Roy wouldn't be able to tell if he fell asleep or fainted, but when he opened his eyes again, he saw a white ceiling and bright lights. He moved a little bit and felt an IV line in his arm.

"Hey, boss."

He looked to the side and saw Lieutenant Havoc, sitting on a chair with a cigarette on his hand. The smell of cigarette smoke filled the room.

"Unbelievable… I'm hospitalized and you're smoking just by my side…"

"Sorry." He said, putting out the cigarette. "I just needed a smoke after hearing about all that…"

"Hearing what?" Roy asked.

Havoc shouldn't know about the spirit. Roy knew he had heard Mulder's theories before they met Eriz, but that was all he was supposed to know.

"About you coming back from the dead and all." Havoc said like it was something obvious.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

Havoc had been told all that had happened since they found out about the spirit that was haunting the Colonel until how Eriz punched him making his heart start beating again. He told Roy the last part, which he couldn't know because he had been unconscious.

"Is it true that when you die you see bright lights and dead relatives?" Havoc asked with curiosity.

"How the hell should I know? I didn't die! I'm here!" Roy snapped.

"Take it easy, don't strain yourself…"

"Then stop saying nonsense… How are the others?"

Roy remembered seeing them just after Eriz brought him back and they seemed to be all right, considering all they had been through, but he couldn't know for sure.

"They're fine. Lt. Hawkeye is dealing with paperwork and the case report. Eriz agreed to testify and support our edited version of the story and Mulder and Scully are staying in the Lieutenant's apartment for now." Havoc said. "Which reminds me that I have to tell you our version of the story, before someone comes to ask you."

"What's our version?"

They couldn't tell the higher-ups a spirit had killed those people, because no one would believe them. However, Mustang had no idea what they could say.

"Eriz helped us a lot with that. We wrote in the report that Sengrat entered his victims' homes and hid hallucinogenic substances there. Breathing the contaminated air caused the abnormal behavior and disorientation, which made it easier for him to get in their homes later and kill them."

Roy was surprised at their brilliant idea and proud that his subordinates could deal with everything without him.

"And how did we get him, according to this edited version?" He asked Havoc.

"Eriz contacted us, showed us that picture he had and you recognized the phone company guy who had been to your house. By the way, we spread some hallucinogenic herbs we got from Eriz in your apartment, so it will take some time for you to be able to go back there."

Havoc had to laugh at the Colonel's reaction to that. Roy stared at him very annoyed, but then sank back on the bed, mumbling a 'whatever' and asking about the rest of the details.

"Eriz took you and Lt. Hawkeye to Sengrat's house, that was empty, and you found pictures from the newspaper and some other stuff about the victims he picked. At least we didn't have to plant any of that. He even had a picture of you that was on the Sunday newspaper." Havoc went on with the story.

"And they say any publicity is good publicity…"

"Then, you, Lt. Hawkeye and Eriz went to the temple, the Lieutenant shot him because he tried to run, the place started to fall apart with all the commotion… By the way, that's how you all got hurt, including you."

Roy wasn't surprised to hear that. Even a stone temple couldn't survive all that. Havoc explained how the church had collapsed about half an hour later, when only Sengrat's body was still inside. The military police had managed to find the dead man in the rubble and had matched the bullet that killed him to Lieutenant Hawkeye's gun.

"So the spirit used her gun to kill Sengrat. That was strange… Did it really turn into me?"

The idea sounded so unreal that Roy felt uneasy thinking about it. He couldn't even imagine how Riza and the others must have felt when they saw the spirit take on his appearance.

"That's what they said. I think you died and came back." Havoc concluded.

"That's impossible."

They then heard a squeak and the doorknob turned, letting the door open.

"Oh, you didn't die…"

Eriz walked in, followed by Lt. Hawkeye, who was very happy to see Roy awake and alert again.

"How do you know he didn't die?" Havoc asked Eriz.

"When the spirit turned into the other soldiers, the ones that died, he said 'Beit nih MA hodina o semith'. That means 'it WASN'T my time to die'. However, when it turned into the Colonel, it said 'Beit nih SE hodina o semith', which means 'IT'S not my time to die'. It was a damn close call, but he didn't die."

"Good to know…" Roy said with a tired smile, turning to the Lieutenant and asking her if she was all right. He was happy to know that she didn't have any bad injuries.

"Eriz… Can I ask you a question?" Riza turned to the old man, who nodded in encouragement. "What was that the spirit said to me, when it gave me my gun back?"

"I'm sorry. I didn't hear it."

"Sounded like 'hecrouy' or something…"

"Hecruý?"

Hawkeye agreed and Eriz frowned, looking confused.

"Now that's weird… It means 'thank you'." He explained, although he couldn't say why the spirit would have thanked her.

"Maybe he was thanking everyone for freeing him." Riza said. It was just a guess, but somehow she felt it was likely to be true.

Eriz nodded, saying that it was possible, before Roy called him

"Yes?" The Urbasan asked politely.

"Thank you. I guess if you hadn't done whatever you did, I'd be dead."

"Oh, it was just a matter of channeling the energy around and then using it to restart your heart." Eriz explained, before smiling and blinking to Lt. Hawkeye like he shared some kind of secret with her. She didn't have the slightest idea of what he meant by that, so Eriz thought he could elaborate on it a little.

According to the people who had first taught him the white magic he used for protection, when someone didn't want that a loved one died, they gave out some energy that tied them to this world for longer. Like a parent wouldn't die until their child had the chance to say good-bye or even a dog only died after its owner petted its head and thought it would be okay for the animal to finally get some rest.

"So that really does happen." Havoc said, amazed by Eriz's simple explanation.

"Colonel, you were lucky that there was such a strong energy source around for me to use." Eriz said again, turning to look at Riza with a broad smile.

The First Lieutenant felt a little embarrassed, as she understood now what he meant. Of course she wouldn't want Roy to die, but Eriz smiled at her like he could read her feelings for her boss.

"Well…" Eriz broke the awkward silence that had involved them. "I still have to send Mr. Mulder and Ms. Scully back to their time."

"So they really are from the future." Havoc said.

"Seems so. I didn't know exactly who I was summoning. I was just focusing on someone who could help stop Sengrat. However, the house where I summoned them is now closed and I'll need your authorization to go there." Eriz added.

Colonel Mustang guaranteed he would take him there as soon as he was discharged. Eriz nodded again and then asked Lt. Havoc to escort him out of the hospital. The Second Lieutenant left with the old man, leaving Roy and Riza alone. She pulled a wooden chair to the side of Roy's hospital bed and sat down. Her eyes met his when she felt him hold her hand that was resting on the bed rail.

"Thank you for not giving up on me."

They were looking in each others' eyes for a few seconds, his hand still holding hers, both of them enjoying the gentle physical contact, when they heard the door creak open and quickly pulled away from each other.

General Grumman walked in the room to pay Roy a visit. He looked at their startled faces and laughed.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." He joked in a good mood.

"Not at all, sir." Roy said quickly, knowing that it would be better to be discreet.

The General stayed only for around ten minutes, to ask about the details of the case and to see if the Colonel was doing all right. Satisfied with the explanation he was given for all the murders, he then said good-bye and left. Both Roy and Riza were relieved that he hadn't really picked on what was going on.

"When I become Fuhrer…" Roy started to say. "I'll say what's appropriate or not."

Sitting by his side, Lt. Hawkeye smiled and nodded. She too was waiting for that day to come.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Eriz kneeled on the floor and used a match to light the candles in the basement of the old house where he had brought Mulder and Scully to that time. The two FBI agents, Col. Mustang and First Lt. Hawkeye watched while he spoke in his first language, slowly erasing the symbols, one by one, with a knife.

"Too bad you didn't report what really happened." Mulder said casually.

"No one would believe us. And besides, we don't want Eriz and the rest of his people to have any trouble with the army." Roy explained.

"Yeah, I think you're right. No one would believe you and the truth could earn you some lousy nickname, like 'Spooky Mustang' or something…" Mulder joked.

"Probably…" Roy agreed.

Eriz interrupted his prayers when there was only one more symbol to be erased.

"Time to say good-bye." The Urbasan said.

"Before we go…" Mulder started to say, as he had been eager to ask the old man something, but didn't know if it wouldn't disturb him. "When you saw the free spirit, what did it look like to you again?"

"A little boy. My son." Eriz said and let out a loud, painful sigh. "He was born with a congenital disease. The doctors said he wouldn't live to be one year old, so I used my magic to keep him alive as long as I could. He made to the age of 7, but finally even my magic wasn't enough and he died. He's my sin, because my love for him obscured my reason and didn't allow me to see how much pain he was going through. I shouldn't have insisted, knowing I could never cure him."

"You did what any parent would have done." Scully said, even though she knew nobody would ever be able to set the man free of his burden.

Eriz nodded absently. There was a moment of respectful silence before anyone spoke again.

"Agent Mulder. Agent Scully. We are most thankful for your help in the case. We wouldn't have solved it without your help." The Colonel said in a formal way.

Both Mulder and Scully knew his sudden formality was his way of showing his recognition of their work. They nodded, as Lieutenant Hawkeye also thanked them formally.

"Have a safe trip."

"Take care Colonel. You too, Lieutenant." Mulder said.

"Have some rest before you go back to work." Scully told them, as she was a doctor.

"Bye, Eriz. Thanks a lot for your help."

"Thank _you_, agents. Sorry for interrupting your flying train trip." Eriz said.

The old man then mumbled a good bye and used his knife to scratch the symbol on the northern wall of the room, the last symbol that channelized the energy to keep them there. The Colonel and the Lieutenant watched in amusement as the two FBI agents just disappeared without a trace.

"That's it." Eriz concluded, spinning on his heels dramatically. He headed back to the stairs followed by the two soldiers.

Roy and Riza thanked the Urbasan formally as well, although Eriz insisted he was the one who needed to thank them. When they were about to part ways, Eriz smirked slightly. He was trying hard to hold his tongue, but finally allowed himself a quick joke.

"Good luck with your office romance." Eriz said and then turned left laughing, leaving the two of them there, now embarrassed at his words.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Mulder opened his eyes and was welcomed by the faint light above his head. His reading light was still on. He looked around and recognized the airplane where he and Scully were on their way to Atlanta.

"I just had the weirdest dream…" Scully said by his side, before stretching her arms.

"I had an interesting dream too, Scully." Mulder said. "Can I take a look at your cell phone?"

Scully didn't bother to ask what he wanted with her cell phone. She stuck her hand in her pocket to grab her cell phone, but something was wrong. Mulder watched her expression change from boredom, to curiosity and then to surprise, as she held a disassembled cell phone in the air.

"I guess they didn't know how to put it together again." Mulder said in an innocent voice.

"No way…"

* * *

**- THE END -**

**A/N:** Well, this is it! Please let me know what you thought of the end. If there was anything you didn't understand I apologize… You can send me a message and ask. Anyway, I want to say a big thank you to everybody who read, alerted, reviewed or favorited the fic. I'm writing another fic, but this one is gonna take some time. I'll try to post a oneshot or another short story in between. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears! (or eyes, since I'm going to read it… ¬¬'). Well, thanks again! I see you soon, I hope!

Greetings from Brazil!


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